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North Queensland Fury has fought through torrential rain to defeat their former coach Ian Ferguson and his Perth Glory 2-1 in Townsville on Friday night.
A crowd of 4011 endured woeful conditions at Dairy Farmers Stadium, but were rewarded with David Williams and Chris Payne scoring two top-shelf goals to topple Perth.
The Fury now have two wins for the A-League season after a horror away run, while Glory suffered their fifth straight loss.
Perth got on the front foot early with their first chance of the game coming in the 6th minute with a shot from Steven McGarry, which was tapped away by North Queensland goalkeeper Justin Pasfield.
The Fury have made missed opportunities a habit in recent weeks but were determined not to make the same mistake again, with Payne smashing the ball into the top corner of the net with ease in the 16th minute to give North Queensland a 1-0 lead.
Perth got an easy goal back of their own in the 22nd minute, when Anthony Skorich got away a close range shot that bounced off Pasfield and rolled in front of an open goal for Michael Baird to tap in and equalise the game at 1-1.
Despite conceding the soft goal, the home side continued confidently.
They let an opportunity go begging in the 39th minute when Gareth Edds crossed a ball in that missed Williams but found the feet of Brad McDonald whose shot was desperately pushed away from goal by Glory keeper Aleks Vrteski.
The Fury had another chance to take the lead in the 53rd minute with a yellow card to Jamie Coyne giving Edds a free kick just outside the 18-yard box, but it drifted slightly wide of the posts.
North Queensland’s dominance finally paid off and they weren’t left to rue failed chances again, when in the 72nd minute Payne got a through ball to Williams who shot sweetly into the back of the net to give the Fury their 2-1 advantage.
North Queensland withheld Perth’s attempts to find an equaliser for the remainder of the game to hold on for the important win.
North Queensland Coach Franz Straka acknowledged the importance of the long-awaited win.
“It was very important to give them confidence. In the last three games we were very unlucky,” he said.
“It was very close and today it was an excellent fight.
“It was not easy as the conditions were bad for both teams. I think we did very well.”
Straka was happy with his team’s performance during both halves despite their slow start.
North Queensland’s Mark Hughes the result could now spark the club’s season.
“We’ve got one win now and we now look to get a string of results, win our next game against Newcastle and start looking at the top six,” he said.
Ferguson was disappointed in the result on his return to North Queensland.
“I was pleased for the first 30 minutes, I thought we were in control of the game and played very well … then we got the sucker punch,” he said.
“We threw everything at them in the second half in the last 15, 20 minutes … we could have maybe netted something but we didn’t.”
Ferguson conceded it had been not been the ideal build-up to a game during the week.
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