Jaiden Kucharski scored on his debut and skipper Adam Taggart took his career goals tally for the club to 57 as Glory fought out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix in Saturday’s Isuzu UTE A-League season-opener at HBF Park.
Click HERE for full match highlights
Click HERE for David Zdrilic’s post-match media conference
Recovering from the loss of goalkeeper Cameron Cook to a knee injury sustained in the warm-up, Glory flew out to a two-goal lead inside the opening 26 minutes as Kucharski rounded off a scintillating move with a crisp finish and Taggart tapped home from inside the six-yard box.
But Phoenix rallied in the latter stages of the first half and reduced Glory’s lead courtesy of a well-taken goal from Nigerian import Ifeanyi Eze.
And the visitors completed their comeback midway through the second half when Tim Payne’s inviting ball to the far post was forced in by former Glory man Carlo Armiento.
The hosts applied some concerted pressure as they went in search of a winner in the latter stages, but the Phoenix defence held firm to ensure that the spoils would be shared.
Roared on by an expectant home crowd, Glory immediately seized the initiative and went close to opening the scoring with ten minutes on the clock when Kucharski got in behind only to be foiled by Phoenix ‘keeper Joshua Oluwayemi.
The former Western United man was not to be denied for long, however, as six minutes later Seb Despotovski and Taggart combined to play him in down the right channel and he picked out the bottom corner with a crisp, first-time shot.
With the visitors reeling from that setback, Glory pressed home their advantage and soon doubled their lead, this time Kucharski crossing for Taggart who found the net at the second attempt after Oluwayemi had done well to block his initial close-range effort.
The final ten minutes of the first half, however, saw Wellington force their way back into the contest and they were rewarded in stoppage-time as the lively Eze raced in on goal and defied a narrow angle to finish neatly.
The second period began with debutant home goalkeeper Matt Sutton producing a spectacular save to prevent Payne’s curler from finding the top corner, before his opposite number, Josh Oluwayemi responded in kind to parry an effort from Glory substitute Nathanael Blair.
Armiento then capped off a sweeping Phoenix move to set up a tense final 20 minutes, but neither side was quite able to land the killer blow.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 Season Round 1
Perth Glory 2 (Kucharski 17′, Taggart 26′) Wellington Phoenix 2 (Eze 45+1′, Armiento 69′)
Half-time: 2-1
HBF Park
Saturday 18 October 2025
Referee: Ben Abrahams
Attendance: 7868
Perth Glory: 29.Matt SUTTON, 4.Scott WOOTTON, 6.Brandon O’NEILL (27.Will FRENEY 46′), 9.Jaiden KUCHARSKI (14.Nathanael BLAIR 63′), 11.Lachlan WALES, 18.Rhys BOZINOVSKI (7.Nicholas PENNINGTON, 63′), 19.Josh RISDON, 20.Trent OSTLER, 22.Adam TAGGART (c), 25.Sebastian DESPOTOVSKI (31.Joel ANASMO 76′), 45.Brian KALTAK
Substitutes not used: 16.Gabriel POPOVIC, 28.Kaylan MAJEKODUNMI, 40.Ryan WARNER (gk)
Yellow Cards: Risdon, Wootton, Bozinovski, Freney
Red Cards: None
Wellington Phoenix: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI, 4. Manjrekar JAMES, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE (9. Hideki ISHIGE 64′), 6. Tim PAYNE (24. Xuan LOKE 80′), 7. Ifeanyi EZE, 11. Carlo ARMIENTO, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 20. Ramy NAJJARINE (29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH 72′), 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN (3. Corban PIPER 80′)
Substitutes not used: 12. Dan EDWARDS, 39. Jayden SMITH, 40. Eamonn MCCARRON
Yellow Cards: Oluwayemi, Armiento
Red Cards: None
#ONEGlory
ALM Match Wrap: Glory share spoils with Wellington in lively season-opener
