Dubai: Well travelled Australian defender Ryan McGowan believes teamwork can make Sharjah as one of the teams to beat during the course of the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) this season.

McGowan, who joined Sharjah last month, was the only foreign professional in the side as ‘The King’ held the Cesare Prandelli-led Al Nasr to a goalless draw in their opening round of the AGL last Friday. It was the 28-year-old McGowan who had managed to put the ball in the back of the net midway through the first half, only for the referee to blow for a foul.

Before moving to the UAE, McGowan has travelled extensively with stops with lesser-known sides such as the Para Hills Knights, Heart of Midlothian, Shandong Luneng Taishan, Dundee United, Henan Jianye followed by loan spells with Ayr United, Guizhou Zhicheng and Patrick Thistle.

“The plan all along was to stay defensive and not allow Al Nasr too much space during build-up. Of course, there were mistakes once in a way, but overall we played well and I think we executed this plan against a very good team,” McGowan told Gulf News.

“As a defender it is my duty to ensure we are compact in the back line. There is nothing that should pass me, and that has always been my thinking. We were compact and we waited for them to make mistakes so that we could have those quick counters. We were unlucky with the goal as it was called a foul, but I didn’t think it was a foul,” he added.

Born and raised in a Scottish family in Adelaide, McGowan has represented Australia at all levels starting with the under-17s, right through under-20s, under-23s and now with the senior national team. He received his first call to the senior team in August 2012 in a friendly against Scotland. McGowan was named in Australian 2014 Fifa World Cup squad and provided the assist to Tim Cahill’s goal in his country’s 2-3 loss to the Netherlands in the group stages.

He follows a host of others from Australia in the AGL, including Mark Milligan, Alex Brosque, Mark Bresciano and Lucas Neill. “I did have a chance to speak to some of these players and all of them told me what a great this is and how the clubs take good care of the players here. I’m having a good time here and slowly settling in,” McGowan admitted.

“We have been working hard in training and the coach [Jose Peseiro] has been doing some careful planning in dealing with the opponent. Shortly we will get a few more foreign players signing and then the more we train together, the more familiar we will be with each other and we will get better as a team.

“I’ve been here only two weeks and they’ve treated me well. All the other players are very friendly and I’ve really been enjoying that part of my stay here,” he added.