Friday October 15, 2010 was an important day in the history of North Queensland Fury Football Club for a number of reasons. The three points gained against Perth Glory is an obvious one, but by no means the most important. The performance of the squad on the pitch was also pleasing to see, but again, not utmost in my mind. The most important thing for NQFC on this momentous day was the 4011 hardy souls who stuck through the driving torrential rain and forged a connection with the club that is going to be hard to sever.
I read with interest comments on websites such as FFT in the days following the match regarding our crowd figure. 4011 isn't that great, granted, but to suggest merely that ‘a bit of rain' kept the crowds away is like suggesting that the Biblical floods were just a bit of drizzle. For those who haven't experienced a torrential North Queensland storm, it's something else. The club has suggested that close to 7000 tickets were pre-sold for the fixture, and I reckon many of the 2500-3000 that didn't turn up were turned off by the bucketfuls our fine city copped just 90 minutes before kick-off.
The atmosphere generated at the game, considering the conditions and crowd figure, was little short of amazing. In some ways I think the rain actually added to the atmosphere, as it provided a sort of glue to hold the supporters together and rally behind the team. The fact we watched a great team performance, and a victory, sealed the deal. Sitting on the grassy hill, soaked to the bone with water flowing past you makes you appreciate just why you support your local club and the effort that the boys in green give to the jersey and the team. The sight of hundreds of fans of all ages standing at the fence at the end of the game to give high fives and words of thanks and encouragement to the players was incredibly pleasing and the players seemed to genuinely appreciate it.
The game itself was important for Fury too. Although many pundits predicted we'd be at the wrong end of the table this season, our performances have suggested that perhaps we have the capacity to be closer to finals reckoning. In recent weeks we'd been unlucky to cop a last minute loss to Central Coast and thwarted by conditions and a bit of bad luck in Wellington. Commentators and rival fans continued to praise our players' effort and work rate - and in most cases skill too - but we still lay second bottom with just a single win for our efforts.
Our performance in this one was top notch and, for me, all our players stood up and deserve credit for the result. The standout performers were our front pairing of Chris Payne and David Williams, who combined twice to deadly effect and are surely somewhere in the mix for representative call-ups at some level. Across the pitch though we had heroic performances: Justin Pasfield pulled off a fine early save and looked confident marshalling his area; Mark Hughes and Eric Akoto were again immense at the back; Ufuk Talay and Gareth Edds were great in the centre of the park and did their jobs very well; Jack Hingert and Brad McDonald did their jobs on the flanks and helped to keep what can be a potent Glory attack quiet.
I've got real optimism for the rest of this season and can see NQFC making a run at the finals. We have a young, talented squad with a coach who gives them structure, but also a licence to create and entertain. Our defence is still a little leaky, but much improved on the showings we put in last season. I don't think any team relishes playing Fury because they know it's going to be a tough game for 90-plus minutes. We need to keep this going, and Fury fans need to take the feeling of Friday night on and get right behind the team.
Our long-term future, for now, is not in our hands. All we can do right now is back the team 100% and believe that something great is being built here in the tropics.
COME ON YOU FURY!!
