David Williams scored the first goal of his A-League career as North Queensland hung on to defeat Perth Glory 1-0 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Friday night.

Williams’ first strike just after the half hour was a precious for the Fury, moving the rookie club up to eighth spot and within sight of the top six.

Both teams got off to a slow start though the Fury did manage to put the Perth defence under strain several times during the first quarter of the game.

In the 26th minute new Fury recruit Matthew Smith put an accurate cross in that was narrowly missed by Jeremy Brockie, but it wasn’t long before they found the back of the net.

The breakthrough came in the 32nd minute with a Robbie Fowler corner being played to Paul Kohler whose long range shot was deflected off a Glory defender.

Williams pounced on the deflection to get a shot away that was pushed away by Glory keeper Tando Velaphi, but Williams again picked up the scraps with his second attempt a header which gave North Queensland a well-deserved lead.

The Fury were looking for their second in the 40th with Brockie coming close with a low shot that went wide of the goal.

Perth came into the second half hungry for the equaliser, Wayne Srhoj’s shot from long range drifting over the top of the net in the 47th minute.

The Fury continued to waste opportunities with a clear shot from Brockie sailing wide just before the hour, and they were almost made to pay only for Jamie Harnwell’s late shot to be desperately saved by Fury goal keeper Justin Pasfield in the final few minutes of the game.

Fury Coach Ian Ferguson was pleased with his teams win but acknowledged that opportunities had been missed.

“I thought it was a game of two halves,” he said.

“I thought the first half we created a few chances; I thought we could have been two or three up.”

Though Perth dominated the second half, Ferguson was pleased that his team coped with the pressure and did not allow them to get the equaliser.

“It was always going to be difficult with such a massive effort in the first half,” he said.

“And we sort of ran out of legs probably with 65 minutes gone and from there on in there was only one team in it, it was Perth, and they put us under a lot of pressure but the boys coped and I was really pleased.”

Winning goal scorer David Williams summed up the win and its importance for their top six hopes.

“It feels unbelievable. We all knew how important it was; I think we gave it all out,” he said.

“We did get overrun a tiny bit by Perth but we stuck in there and that’s all that counts and the three points is vital for the rest of the set up with these next two games that we’ve got on the road.”

Perth coach David Mitchell thought his team dominated the second half but made clear that his team did not deserve the win.

“That first half we didn’t perform,” he said.

“North Queensland sort of battered us and pinned us in and we were lucky to come out one nil.

“In the second half we dominated the game and created some half chances and maybe could have gotten something out of the game but I don’t think we deserved it.”

© AAP 2012

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