The second match at our temporary home of UTAS Stadium didn’t go to plan. Actually, it was worse than that.
Let’s address the big talking point straight away: Daniel Sturridge subbed out after just 18 minutes of action with a groin injury.
It’s the scenario all Glory fans had been fearing the most, more injury woes for our marquee man. Now, that fear is a reality.
At the time of writing, it appears Sturridge is set to miss at least six games over several weeks in a best-case scenario. News we didn’t want to hear.
The potential reasoning behind what caused his injury annoyed me the most, speculated by Richard Garcia to be a rushed warm up.
If there is one player who needs to be properly warmed up before getting on the pitch, its Daniel Sturridge. If he wasn’t fully prepared, why was he subbed on?
If that’s the case, it’s not good enough from Richard Garcia. To be honest, the overall performance against Macarthur wasn’t good enough.
The only goal came early from a Glory mistake. Aaron Calver failed to control a simple ball, gifting it to Ulises Davila. He calmly avoided Josh Rawlins’ last ditch sliding challenge and slotted the ball past Liam Reddy.
I’ve given a lot of praise to Aaron Calver this season, but this outing wasn’t one of his finest. He made a few uncharacteristic errors early on, maybe still in a bit of discomfort after going off against Brisbane.
As soon as we conceded the goal, we were on the back foot. The response from the team was not at the level it needed to be if we are to be a finals side.
The counter press was pretty lacklustre and there seemed to be less determination to win the ball back when we gave up possession, which happened far too often in the centre of the park trying to transition from defence into attack.
We were lucky not to have conceded more going into the break. Apostolos Giannou had a great chance to double Macarthur’s lead from point blank range, but he was denied by a good save from Reddy.
Going forward in the first half, our best chances unsurprisingly fell to Bruno Fornaroli, and on both occasions, it was Jack Clisby who delivered the ball to him. I think this was one of his better performances for the season.
The second half was a vast improvement on the first. Brandon O’Neill coming on played a huge part in that, providing more midfield strength than Antonee Burke-Gilroy was offering.
With Sturridge coming on too, we had another outlet. He was able to get the ball, evade challenges and find a pass to an open teammate.
He had a great chance to open his Glory account which I didn’t even mention. Fornaroli put it on a plate for him near the penalty spot, but he could only drag the shot wide on his opposite foot. The missed opportunity summed up his season to this point.
The sending off gave us a great chance to take a point away from the game. It was a clever bit of play by Callum Timmins to boot the ball into Aleksander Susnjar, taking another page out of the Neil Kilkenny playbook.
The man down forced Macarthur to defend deep until the end of the match, and we just couldn’t generate any substantial chances. Fornaroli forced a diving save out of Filip Kurto from a free kick, and Daniel Stynes hit the post in the 90th minute.
When they came on, Stynes and Giordano Colli were the ones most likely to create something through the middle. I hope they both get more time on the pitch; personally, I wouldn’t be opposed to starting Stynes in the midfield and starting Colli on the right-hand side of the front three in a more attacking role.
The last discussion point from the game was the penalty overturned by VAR. I wasn’t surprised the call was overturned and I agree it was the right decision. I’m just thankful it was dealt with quickly and efficiently.
The Bulls flew in, got the win, and flew out with three points. I thought Craig Noone played well and was a tad unlucky not to get a goal contribution, and Adrian Mariappa was very good at the back. It’s proven to be an astute piece of business by Macarthur.
Wednesday was a rough one for the Glory, a home loss compounded by the injury to our main man. We can’t let it get us down though, there’s still one more game in Launceston to go. Western United await on Sunday; I expect a positive response and a better showing from our boys on the weekend.
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