Perth Glory boss Richard Garcia saluted a courageous effort from his players as they snatched a late point in a 1-1 draw with Central Coast Mariners.
Glory are priced at 9/4 to finish in the top six of the A-League this season and continue to battle against the odds in their pursuit of finals football.
Brave fightback
Glory looked on course for defeat as the Mariners new striker signing Jason Cummings put them in front in the 58th minute, but a stoppage time strike from Daniel Stynes rescued a point.
Glory still remain at the foot of the ladder with a number of games in hand, but Garcia could not fault the spirit shown by his players in the face of adversity.
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"A real gutsy performance," Garcia told reporters after the game. "The first half, they played very well. Boys really stroked the ball around well and created some chances which we probably should have taken advantage of but you could tell that second half we lost our wind.
"We've got six guys who have just come out of quarantine, so the effort that they put in tonight was a massive one and had Nick Fitzgerald, who hasn't played in a game in a long, long time."
Positive outlook
Glory still face troubled waters as they are unable to return to Perth just yet so will be forced to play a number of games in Tasmania.
But after another spirited display, Garcia is feeling optimistic about the future.
"So a severely undercooked team from that point of view, but their desire and their effort to stick together as a group and eventually get a result was fantastic to see," Garcia added.
"If we continue to build on the performance side of what we've been doing then there's going to be some good signs ahead."
