A debut goal from Matt Ellis was not enough to prevent Glory from tasting defeat on the road as they went down 2-1 to Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Friday evening.
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The New Zealander capitalised upon an under-hit back-pass from Joel King on the hour-mark, finding the net with his first touch after being introduced from the bench only seconds earlier.
But by that time Glory were trailing to first-half goals from Justic Vidic and Tae-hee Nam and were ultimately unable to find an equaliser during a frantic finale in the Queensland capital.
After a competitive if largely uneventful opening quarter, the hosts began to build up a head of steam and eventually made the breakthrough just short of the half-hour mark.
Seizing upon a defensive error, Tate Russell made inroads down the right before slipping a low cross into the path of Vidic who calmly tapped home from close range.
Glory almost responded immediately, Pieter Jacobsz firing into the side-netting after excellent approach work from Sam Sutton, but Roar remained in the ascendancy and doubled their lead shortly before the break.
When Glory were only able to half-clear their lines, the ball fell for Nam and he arrowed a spectacular volley into the top corner from the edge of the box.
A response was required from the visitors at the start of the second half and they very nearly produced it inside the opening two minutes as substitute Jaiden Kucharski linked up with Tom Lawrence in the box, but after cleverly beating a couple of defenders, the skipper was just unable to squeeze his shot inside the far post.
Vidic then went close to taking the hosts out of sight when his low shot clipped the outside of the post only for Glory to make the most of that let-off by pulling one back moments later.
There looked to be little danger when King attempted to roll the ball back to George Plusnin in the home goal, but he did not get enough on the pass and the alert Ellis raced in to send a toe-poke finish into the bottom corner.
With the tide seemingly turning in their favour, Glory poured forward in search of a late leveller and created a golden opportunity in the 75th minute.
Jaiden Kucharski, who made a lively cameo off the bench, played Stefan Colakovski in behind with a perfectly-timed through-ball, but he was unable to find the target in a one-on-one situation.
That was as close as Glory came to securing a first point of the season, with the game becoming increasingly fractious in the final minutes.
New signing Jay O’Shea was introduced from the bench against his former club with ten minutes left and showed some nice touches, but Roar held on to consign Glory to a second consecutive 2-1 defeat on the road.
Match Details
A-League 2026/27 Season Round 2
Brisbane Roar 2 (Vidic 28′, Nam 42′) Perth Glory 1 (Ellis 60′)
Half-time: 2-0
Suncorp Stadium
Friday 23 October 2026
Referee: Alireza Faghani
Attendance: 6497
Brisbane Roar: 40.George PLUSNIN (GK), 5.Tom ALDRED (C), 6.Noah MAIERONI, 8.Tyrese FRANCOIS (22.Nathan AMANATIDIS 75′), 9.Virgiliu POSTOLACHI (11.Marko ILIC 65′), 10.Tae-hee NAM, 13.Tate RUSSELL (2.Jacob NASSO 79′), 16.Joel KING, 17.Justin VIDIC, 19.Sabit NGOR (41.Emmett SHAW 75′), 77.Milorad STAJIC (15.Hosine BILITY 65′)
Substitutes not used: 1.Dean BOUZANIS (GK), 14.Emin DURAKOVIC
Yellow Cards: Maieroni, King, Vidic, Amanatidis
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 1.Matt SUTTON (GK), 3.Sam SUTTON, 5.Lachie JACKSON, 7.Stefan COLAKOVSKI (11.Sebastian KUKUCKA 75′), 10.Tom LAWRENCE (C) (8.Jay O’SHEA 80′), 16.Lucas SCICLUNA, 17.Pieter JACOBSZ (39.Giovanni DE ABREU 59′), 18.Cher DENG, 24.Andriano LEBIB (9.Jaiden KUCHARSKI 46′), 25.Sebastian DESPOTOVSKI (21.Matt ELLIS 59′), 30.Tadi KUZAMBA
Substitutes not used: 29.Daniel SOLSKY (GK), 44.Riley FOXE
Yellow Cards: Kucharski
Red Cards: None
#ONEGlory
ALM Match Report: Ellis strikes on debut, but Glory go down to Roar
