Glory suffered just their second defeat of a lengthy pre-season campaign when they were edged out 1-0 by Hyundai A-League rivals Melbourne City on Sunday.
The only goal of the behind-closed-doors clash at City’s training ground came on 17 minutes when Dario Vidosic’s deflected strike found the bottom corner, but Glory created plenty of chances, especially after the break, with Fabio Ferreira, Alex Grant, Joel Chianese and Jake Brimmer all going close to restoring parity.
In what was a hard-fought contest, there was also late drama as former Glory skipper Rostyn Griffiths collected a second yellow card three minutes from time and was sent off.
Head Coach Tony Popovic, meanwhile, felt that his side deserved at least a share of the spoils and declared himself pleased with the overall display.
“It was another very good hit-out for us against an A-League opponent which was invaluable to us as a team with many new players looking to play in a new way,”he said.
“We would have preferred to have got a result and in terms of the balance of play, I thought we deserved at least a draw, but it was still a pleasing performance.
“There are still a lot of things to improve, but it was a performance which will give us a lot of confidence heading into Round One.
“In the first half we looked a little bit flat and didn’t quite get into any rhythm, but as the game wore on, we really started playing the type of football that we’ve been seeing at training and in our pre-season games back home.
“We were under pressure at times, but our structure keeps getting better and we had some opportunities of our own.
“Overall, we will learn a lot from it and also physically, it will stand us in good stead.
“Initial reports are that we had a clean bill of health injury-wise, which is obviously another big plus.
“The players have worked exceptionally hard during what has been a long pre-season and I’m very happy in terms of where we’re at with the new season now nearly upon us.”
Glory open the new Hyundai A-League season by hosting Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday 21 October and you can grab your tickets HERE, or your membership HERE.
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