Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick hailed the performance of last-minute signing Adrian Leijer after the Victory’s 1-0 A-League win over a much-improved North Queensland Fury on Saturday.
Having only arrived from England on Saturday morning after completing his return from Premier League club Fulham, Leijer played a full match to help the reigning premiers post their first win of the season.
Merrick was full of praise for the defender, who was part of the club’s premiership winning side in 2007, while also lauding an improved defensive effort from his side.
“He (Leijer) was really, keen I thought he was outstanding,” Merrick said.
“We conceded five goals in the last two games we have been working on shutting up the shop and Surat Sukha at right back plugged that hole from last week.
“So overall a good defensive performance.
“We could have made it easier on ourselves with Archie (Thompson) being through twice and Mossy (goalkeeper Glen Moss) had to pull off a terrific save in the dying minutes.”
Merrick was not quite so complimentary about the overall team performance that saw Archie Thompson find the net in the 45th minute, after he superbly controlled a Leijer long ball and slotted home.
“We didn’t play good football the first half an hour and we couldn’t string a pass together,” Merrick said.
“Credit to the North Queensland Fury they really closed us down.
“It was one of those ones that you had to grind out I was just impressed with our defence and our goalkeeper kept a clean sheet.”
Fury coach Ian Ferguson was impressed with the way his side recovered from their 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Gold Coast last week.
The Fury looked the better side for most of the match and could have got something from the game had Rostyn Griffith or substitute Dyron Daal converted good chances.
“I thought we had done enough to try and get something out of the game,” Ferguson said.
“A draw would have been a better result but unfortunately Melbourne are a quality side.
“To our credit our boys they came back in the second half and put in a big shift.”
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