A youthful Glory side produced a valiant performance on Wednesday evening, but they were ultimately unable to prevent in-form Melbourne Victory from claiming a 1-0 victory at HBF Park courtesy of Francesco Margiotta’s second-half goal.
View the full match highlights HERE.
In what was a lively encounter from the outset, the home side went close on a number of occasions, notably through substitute Pacifique Niyongabire.
And although Victory did strike the woodwork twice in the first half, Glory Head Coach Ruben Zadkovich was again heartened to see his young charges more than hold their own against significantly more experienced opponents.
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“I keep stressing these points,” he said.
“In terms of the mentality and the effort, there’s been a massive shift and I think it’s very clear for everyone to see.
“While I’m extremely proud of the boys, I’m also still gutted for them as I felt that they deserved more from that game as well.
“We wear the losses with our chests out because when you give your all, you can look your teammates in the eye.
“There’s a bunch of boys hurting, there’s a club that’s hurting, but if they give their all, there’s not much more you can ask from a coaching point of view.
“The scheduling dictates that we don’t have the time to make the changes needed to the playing style and the way we want to go about our business.
“We’re in the position we’re in for a lot of reasons and bit by bit we’re fixing those and I think tonight was a good example of what we’re capable of in terms of keeping improving.”
Glory were forced into a personnel change inside the opening nine minutes as Adrian Sardinero unfortunately succumbed to an apparent knee injury, but his replacement, Niyongabire, made an immediate impact.
The winger fizzed a low shot narrowly wide with his first sight of goal and moments later, having been released down the right by Josh Rawlins, he fired in an angled effort which beat the stranded Ivan Kelava only to drift just past the far post.
Victory’s response to those let-offs was to strike the woodwork twice in the space of three minutes through a shot on the turn from Marco Rojas and a spectacular, knuckle-ball-style free-kick from Margiotta.
In what was a lively opening 45 minutes both sides created a further decent chance before the break, Liam Reddy parrying a fierce volley from Victory skipper Josh Brillante before Jack Clisby went desperately close at the other end with a low shot across the face of goal.
12 minutes into the second half, however, Tony Popovic’s side struck what proved to be the decisive blow, former Glory man Jake Brimmer cutting the ball back for Margiotta who claimed his third goal of the season with a top-corner finish.
To their credit, Glory refused to buckle in the latter stages and came agonisingly close to restoring parity in the 74th minute when substitute Tyler Vecchio’s angled low shot beat Kelava in the Victory goal, but flashed centimetres wide of the far post.
Match Details
Perth Glory 0 Melbourne Victory 1 (Margiotta 57′)
Half-time: 0-0
HBF Park
Attendance: 3342
Referee: Tim Danaskos
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (GK) (C), 7.Adrian SARDINERO (24.Pacifique NIYONGABIRE 9′), 14.Jack CLISBY, 19.Callum TIMMINS (6.Osama MALIK 72′), 21.Antonee BURKE-GILROY, 22.Josh RAWLINS, 23.Mitch OXBORROW (18.Daniel STYNES 72′), 26.Giordano COLLI, 28.Trent OSTLER (43.Adam ZIMARINO 64′), 29.Darryl LACHMAN, 38.Ciaran BRAMWELL (47.Tyler VECCHIO 63′)
Substitutes not used: 12.Cameron COOK (GK), 32.Aidan COYNE
Yellow Cards: Colli, Timmins
Red Cards: None
Melbourne Victory: 20.Ivan KELAVA (GK), 2.Jason GERIA, 3.Jason DAVIDSON (13.Birkan KIRDAR 86′), 5.Matt SPIRANOVIC (16.Stefan NIGRO 69′), 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Chris IKONOMIDIS (11.Ben FOLAMI 68′), 8.Josh BRILLANTE (C) (4.Raimon Marchan VIDAL 75′), 9.Francesco MARGIOTTA (18.Nick D’AGOSTIONO 69′), 17.Brendan HAMILL, 22.Jake BRIMMER, 23.Marco Rojas
Substitutes not used: 24.Nishan VELUPILLAY, 30.Marko BULIC (GK)
Yellow Cards: Vidal, Davidson
Red Cards: None
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