Andy Keogh marked his comeback from injury with a well-taken goal and Yagoub Mustafa bagged a second-half hat-trick as Glory secured a resounding 7-0 victory in their friendly clash with Rockingham City.
Chris Harold, Michael Domfeh and Zayd Farah also found the net as Tony Popovic’s men continued their preparations for the new Hyundai A-League season by producing another impressively controlled performance in front of a bumper crowd at Lark Hill.
After Harold’s opener, Keogh showed that he is well and truly over his ankle ligament injury by doubling his side’s lead on the stroke of half time and Mustafa’s quick-fire treble at the start of the second period then saw Glory take the game away from last season’s State League Division One champions.
Fellow-substitutes Domfeh and Farah added to the scoreline in the latter stages, but unfortunately a little of the gloss was taken off the performance by an injury to Diego Castro which forced the Spaniard from the fray after just eight minutes.
Glory began brightly, Jake Brimmer stinging the palms of home ‘keeper Cyril Sharrock within the first minute before Harold opened the scoring soon after.
Castro bisected the City defence with a clever through-ball and the pacy frontman found the corner of the net with an emphatic, outside-of-the-boot finish that crashed in off the underside of the bar.
Following Castro’s departure, Abias Bukuru was introduced from the bench and the youngster was next to test Sharrock having been played in by Keogh down the left channel.
Keogh himself then saw a header saved, but the Irishman was not to be denied just before the break.
Capitalising upon an unfortunate slip from Jacob Aquino, he raced in on goal and rifled home a low shot.
2-0 became 3-0 just after the re-start when Mustafa found the net from just inside the box moments after coming off the bench and the substitute then added his second and Glory’s fourth after being teed up by Ivan Franjic.
He duly completed his hat-trick on 58 minutes, beating Sharrock from close range after fine approach work from the lively Brimmer.
Mustafa was denied a fourth by a fine save from Phil Herschell and City’s substitute ‘keeper was also equal to strikes from Trent Ostler and Domfeh as the second half wore on.
In a rare attacking foray for the home side, Ross Staley flashed a low shot across the face of goal on 74 minutes, but Glory were not to be denied the last word, Domfeh calmly converting after showing a great turn of pace to fashion a one-on-one opportunity and Farah firing in from outside the box.
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Match Details
Rockingham City 0 Perth Glory 7 (Harold 8′, Keogh 45′, Mustafa 47′, 50′, 58′, Domfeh 80′, Farah 84′)
Half-time: 0-2
Rockingham City: GK Cyril SHARROCK, 2.Jason CONSTABLE, 3.Justis BRADLEY, 6.Blake SOKOLOWSKI, 7.Koty MILLARD, 8.Jason POTTIER,10.James HARMER, 11.Ross STALEY, 13. Jacob AQUINO, 14.Lydon HODGKISS, 15.Ryan KENNEDY
Substitutes: 4.Harry GEEVES, 5.Cody WILLIAMS, 9.Josh MACKINDER, 12.Max MCVICKER, 16.Jethro YUMANGE, 51.Phil HERSCHELL
Yellow Cards: None
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (30.Jackson LEE 46′), 3.Jason DAVIDSON (25.Walter SCOTT 46′), 5.Ivan FRANJIC (7.Joel CHIANESE 67′), 6.Dino DJULBIC, 9.Andy KEOGH (26.Yagoub MUSTAFA 46′), 14.Chris HAROLD (31.Michael DOMFEH’), 16.Tomislav MRCELA (19.Zayd FARAH 67′), 17.Diego CASTRO (11.Abias BUKURU 8′, 4.Nic MCDONALD 71′), 20.Jake BRIMMER (8.Trent OSTLER 67′) , 23.Scott NEVILLE, 27.JUANDE (15.Brandon WILSON 46′),
Substitutes not used: None
Yellow Cards: None
Red Cards: None
Photos courtesy of Tom McCarthy
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