Perth Glory skipper Jacob Burns says spirits remain high in the squad despite the disappointment of dropping points late in their clash against league leaders Gold Coast United.
Perth Glory skipper Jacob Burns says spirits remain high in the squad despite the disappointment of dropping points late in their clash against league leaders Gold Coast United.
Superb in the opening half and dominant for large chunks of a high quality encounter, Glory were again left to rue a late goal which saw vital competition points evaporate from their grasp.
“I just think that Gold Coast was very lucky to sneak a point from us, they-re the league leaders but we feel as though we were a lot better on the day,” Burns said.
“We have to take the positives out of the game. We-ve dominated the top team in the competition and again shown that we-re a force. The three points were there for the taking and we-re dirty that we didn-t take them.”
It is the third time that Perth has conceded a goal in the final 10 minutes of a game however Burns dismissed suggestions that the squad-s fitness was playing a part in that statistic.
“We have a very fit group and Peter Cklamovski (Strength and Conditioning Coach) does a great job with the boys,” Burns said.
“Maybe it is a mental toughness thing towards the end there.
“We-re always going to be a hard team to get through, we have tremendous players and teams aren-t going to come and play us off the park, I have no doubt about that.
“It is really whether or not we can be mentally strong enough to hold onto leads, lock up shop and grab the points on offer.
“Fatigue sets in for both teams but I didn-t feel at any point that Gold Coast was a fitter group than us and felt we still had a lot there going forward.”
The focus has switched now to the challenge of consecutive away matches, the first against Brisbane this Sunday followed by the Jets in Newcastle five days later. Perth will remain on the east coast for the week and Burns says the time will be well spent ironing out the small kinks in their game.
“While we-re all disappointed you can-t stop believing, football is all about that you know,” Burns said.
“The beauty of it is that you always have another game to get three points and move up the ladder. At the moment you win a couple and you jump into the top three, a few results don-t go your way and you-re heading back down.
“However the worst part about that is knowing the points you have given away could have you sitting at the top of the table.
“We-re confident in our ability and the team and it-s a matter of getting those results.”
“I think every day, every session, the more and more we do the better and better we get. There are obviously things that we have to take from each game and work on and we-ll be doing that.”
