I love reading the FourFourTwo forums. I especially loved reading them in the days leading up to the Glory v Fury match in Perth, where most (possibly) crack-smoking Glory fans were insisting that this was three points in the bag. Some predictions doing the rounds even had them winning by Germany-esque margins. I loved reading them because I knew it would blow up in their faces.
"Oh, but Glory dominated!" "Fury were lucky to get out of Perth without their tails between their legs!" "The referee was rubbish!" These are some of the excuses trotted out by purple-clad supporters since Fury left the west with a point. I just hope those excuses make the humble pie many of you had to eat just slightly more bearable. To all those Glory (and other rival) fans who respected what we had to offer - many thanks! I hope you enjoyed the game!
It appears that there are two early similarities between Frank Straka's and Ian Ferguson's respective Fury reigns. Number one is painfully obvious - a propensity for conceding early goals. I was driving home from my own refereeing duties, listening to the start of the match on the radio when the first Perth goal went in, and for a split second my mind flashed with countless images of early goals conceded last season. But I have faith in Franz and shrugged it off. As I expected, so did our boys.
Okay, so we didn't control possession. Okay, so we didn't have a lot of shots on goal. What do you expect from a team that has been cobbled together in under a month, playing away from home in front of a fantastic crowd? Our counter-attacking game was great and brilliantly led by David Williams up front. One criticism I had of him last season was his low goal return, but his finish for the second goal was outstanding.
Our first goal was also quite good, although if you listened to Robbie Slater, you'd think Chris Payne backpassed the ball at Tando Velaphi, only to have the little guy turn around and boot it into his own net. It was a nice run and finish by a guy who is shaping to be a very important player for us this season; he is especially suited to our counter-attacking style away from home and is going to be a handful.
Then of course you throw in goal number three. Few sights from this season of the A-League will rival Justin Pasfield's celebration after Chris Grossman headed home - it's obvious Justin doesn't get to celebrate many goals with his team mates, and his knee-sliding and fist-pumping filled my heart with green joy. Obviously the net rippling in the second minute of injury time helped with that too.
With all this said, I was a little disappointed that we didn't return from our cross-country trek with all three points. Going 2-1 up was fantastic (if unexpected) but I can't help but think that if we get into this position later in the season, we won't let it slip. Franz is still working his magic on our boys and it's going to take a while before this tree bears fruit. However our fightback brings me to my second similarity between ‘Franz Fury' and ‘Fergie Fury' - the team spirit. What a fightback it was, in front of a big crowd, against a team that contains a number of former and hopeful Socceroos; a team that hadn't just been thrown together.
Our boys did us proud - there is no other conclusion to be reached from this game. Hopefully other teams show us the respect we deserve now, and we build on this positive start. I'm tipping a bumper home crowd against the Sydney Smurfs on Saturday and I hope the people of Townsville and North Queensland get behind our team; there is a lot of potential in this team, and in the sport in this region, and it needs everyone pulling together for it. So come on NQ - show us what you've got!
