Daniel Bennie struck twice from close range and Mark Beevers and Joel Anasmo also found the net as Glory secured a 4-0 victory over NPL WA side Floreat Athena in Tuesday evening’s pre-season friendly at E&D Litis Stadium.
Click HERE for Alen Stajcic’s post-match interview.
Three of the goals arrived during a dominant first-half performance, while the second period was notable for new recruit Bruce Kamau debuting off the bench and Jacob Muir making a welcome return from injury.
Glory were forced to be patient in the opening exchanges as Floreat defended deep and in numbers, but they broke the deadlock emphatically just short of the half-hour mark with two goals in less than a minute.
Mark Beevers claimed the first, stretching every inch of his formidable frame to reach an Adam Zimarino cross and steer a header past Josh Hunter in the home goal.
And before Floreat had time to recover and regroup, Bennie doubled Glory’s lead with a close-range finish.
The 17-year-old prospect then struck again to stretch his side’s lead in the shadows of half-time, this time appearing to get the final touch in a goalmouth scramble prompted by Zimarino’s inswinging free-kick.
In keeping with each of the club’s two previous pre-season outings, Stajcic made a string of changes on the hour-mark and one of those introduced, Kamau, was unable to mark his Glory debut with a goal as he scooped a John Koutroumbis cross over the bar.
The men in the white were not to be denied the final word, however, as Luke Bodnar’s cross was headed back across the face of goal by Koutroumbis and Anasmo was on hand to crash a close-range shot into the roof of the net.
Glory are set to return to pre-season action on Sunday 24 September when they will face the WA State team at the State Football Centre (kick-off time and further details TBC).
Match Details
Pre-Season Friendly
Floreat Athena 0 Perth Glory 4 (Beevers 27′, Bennie 28′, 40′. Anasmo 82′))
Half-time: 0-3
E&D Litis Stadium
Referee: Shane Skinner
Perth Glory Line-Up: 1.Oli SAIL (GK), 16.Joseph FORDE (42.Kaelan MAJEKODUNMI 60′), 29.Daryl LACHMAN (2.John KOUTROUMBIS 60′), 5.Mark BEEVERS (28.Aleksandar SUSNJAR 46′), 26.Riley WARLAND (37.Shade STEWART 46′), 8.Antonis MARTIS (trialist) (3.Jacob MUIR 60′), 20.Giordano COLLI (24.Joel ANASMO 60′), 11.Adam ZIMARINO (14.Bruce KAMAU 60′), 23.Daniel BENNIE (21.James OVERY 60′), 12.Luke IVANOVIC (18.David WILLIAMS 46′), 10.Salim KHELIFI (6.Aiki TSUKAMOTO 30′) (4.Luke BODNAR 60′)
Substitutes not used: 30.Robert COOK (GK)
(picture courtesy of Tom McCarthy)
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