The PGFC Academy First Team endured an afternoon to forget on Saturday as they lost 6-0 to Floreat Athena at a rainswept E&D Litis Stadium.
Despite a fairly even first half, Richard Garcia’s men found themselves two goals down at the break after Jonathan Stynes finished from close range and Jesse Fuller rose highest to head home a corner from Dean Evans whose set-piece delivery caught the eye throughout the game.
With the pitch becoming submerged in places, Floreat pressed home their advantage in the second half, Nicholas Ambrogio making it 3-0 from another Evans corner and substitute Tyler Holden reacting quickest to fire home the fourth 12 minutes from time.
And the scoreline then blew out further in the dying minutes, Chris Saldaris getting on the scoresheet following a goalmouth scramble prompted by another Evans corner and Ambrogio duly volleying home his second and Floreat’s sixth in stoppage-time.
Garcia was gracious in defeat and keen to stress the need for his young charges to learn from their experience and react in the right way.
“Credit to Floreat, they played the conditions well and deserved the win,” he said.
“We had a great week at training and that performance wasn’t what we expected, but we made errors and Floreat capitalised on them.
“It the first time we’ve not really been in the game this season and hopefully it’s a wake up call for the players.
“They have to adapt to certain scenarios and tough conditions and today we didn’t.
“We have a young group and it’s a huge learning curve for them and they are a disappointed group of players in that dressing room.
“We will review the game and learn from our mistakes.
“We have a break next week, so this allows us to get back to training and work on things for our trip to Balcatta in two weeks’ time.”
The boot was very much on the other foot for Glory’s Under-18s, however, who ran out 9-0 winners in their game, while the Under-20s fought out a 2-2 draw.
Although neither the First Team nor the Under-18s have fixtures this coming weekend, the Under-20s are set to take on Armadale in the Semi-Finals of the Belt Up State League Reserves Cup.
The tie will take place at E&D Litis Stadium on Saturday 15 June, with a kick-off time of 12.45pm, so get along to lend the lads your support if you can.
Match Details
Perth Glory 0 Foreat Athena 6 (Stynes 9′, Fuller 44′, Ambrogio 72′, 90+3′, Holden 78′, Chris Saldaris 85′)
Half-time: 0-2
E&D Litis Stadium,
Referee: Steven Gregory
Perth Glory: 1. Nicolas SPECA, 7. Ethan BROOKS, 9. Gomo DUKULY, 8. Henry HORE, 4. Luca BODNAR (22. Alessandro CIRCALI 45′), 6. Josh SAMSON, 5. Nicholas WALSH, 2. Zayd FARAH, 10. Trent OSTLER, 11. Gabriel POPOVIC (15. Ciran BRAMWELL 57′), 3. Joshua RAWLINS
Substitutes not used: (RGK) 26. Jacob RANGE, 17. Jack LEECH, 12 Jordan ABRAHAMS
Yellow cards: None
Red cards: None
Floreat Athena: 1. Jason SALDARIS 2. Marco SANTALUCIA, 6. Jesse FULLER, 8. Jonathan STYNES (3. Tristian COLLI 70′), 9. Robert PETKOV, 15. Christopher SALDARIS, 17. Dean EVANS, 18. Phillip ARNOLD (33. Tyler HOLDEN 58′), 10. Nicholas AMBROGIO, 11. Dennis GALAN, 16. Ryan MALTON
Substitutes not used: (RGK) 23. Jordan BARBAS, 31. Jacob STUBBERFIELD, 4. Adrian MADASCHI
Yellow cards: Chris Saldaris 54′
Red cards: None
#OneGlory
