Ouma, a striker who is hoping to win a permanent deal with the Fury, was the one shining light on an evening a few highlights at the Townsville Sports Reserve.

Fury assistant coach Stuart McLaren told the Townsville Bulletin after the game the Kenyan had shown he can offer the team something.

"You can see that he's got some good football intelligence, gets into the right positions, is comfortable enough having the ball played into his feet with defenders tight to him," he said.

"We're certainly looking for a player of his type in that position, somebody that can link with the midfield and hold the ball up and is a bit of threat on goal."

All that was missing for Ouma, who hit the post and was denied in a one-on-one, was a goal but the Fury admit they're keen to persist with him.

McLaren added: ''Certainly Ouma is worth pursuing over the next couple of weeks.

''We'll play him in a game again next week, if we get it finalised, against (State League team Whitsunday) Miners.''

The Fury also revealed after the game they had allowed fellow trialists Zhan Xu and Yoo Wook-Jin to return home after failing to impress.

After a tumultuous off-season, North Queensland's playing roster is currently at 16, with German Andre Kilian and former Netherlands Antilles international Dyron Daal the club's two visa players.

On the performance of the team on Friday night, McLaren added there was still much work to do.

"We're not 100 per cent satisfied, but we're not 100 per cent dissatisfied, either - we're stuck in the middle," he said.

"But we knew all the way along that we are going to have to make some improvement as the pre-season progresses, so there's plenty for us to be encouraged by and we'll certainly get better."