Perth Glory were unable to mark their first home game for nearly four months with a win as Adelaide United prevailed 2-1 at HBF Park on Sunday afternoon.
Click HERE to view full match highlights.
The Reds grabbed the lead in first-half stoppage-time courtesy of Hiroshi Ibusuki’s header and doubled their advantage on the hour-mark through substitute Mo Toure.
And although Bruno Fornaroli converted his seventh goal of the season from the penalty spot late on to set up a frantic finale, Richard Garcia’s men were ultimately unable to secure a share of the spoils.
The result means that Glory remain six points outside the top six, albeit with three games in hand on sixth-placed Sydney and Garcia pulled no punches in his assessment of the performance.
Click HERE to view Garcia’s full post-match media conference.
“I’m very disappointed,” he said.
“[We’re] making the same mistakes we made a few weeks ago, individual errors.
“We conceded a late corner and then conceded from it with not fantastic defending.
“We keep talking about trying to eliminate these individual errors because as a team, I think we’re actually progressing pretty well and playing some pretty good stuff.
“We’re defending as a team, but at both ends of the park, we aren’t clinical.
“In and around the box we have chances and we don’t put them away and then on the back end, we concede easy, easy goals.
“The simplicity of what they [Adelaide] did to score goals was not good enough.”
The hosts began brightly in hot conditions, roared on by a crowd clearly thrilled to be back at HBF Park, with Daniel Stynes and Fornaroli asking plenty of questions of the United defence.
The nearest they came to breaking the deadlock was in the 35th minute when Fornaroli was picked out by Stynes once again and the Uruguayan span off his marker and unleashed a curling effort which was only kept out of the far corner by a fine, fingertip save from Joe Gauci.
The Reds duly made the most of that let-off, claiming the lead themselves just before the break when Craig Goodwin’s deep corner found Ibusuki who was given too much time and space at the far post and headed firmly past Liam Reddy.
Cameron Cook replaced Reddy in goal at the start of the second half after the latter succumbed to a hip flexor injury and the substitute’s first piece of meaningful action involved picking the ball out of his net.
Having been introduced from the bench only three minutes earlier, Toure showcased his electric pace to burst away down the right before cutting into the box, feigning to cross and instead squeezing home a shot between Cook and the near post.
The home side responded by creating two chances in as many minutes, Jonathan Aspropotamitis just failing to nod home a Kosuke Ota and Callum Timmins coming close to replicating his stunning midweek goal against Melbourne City with a fizzing strike which whistled centimetres over Gauci’s bar.
Eventually Glory did manage to find a way through the well-marshalled Adelaide defence, substitute Pacifique Niyongabire’s pace proving too much for Michael Jakobsen who upended the winger in the box.
Fornaroli slammed home the resulting penalty in emphatic style, but there was to be no grandstand finish for the men in purple as the Reds dug deep to keep them at bay in the final minutes.
Match Details
Perth Glory 1 (Fornaroli (pen) 90+1′) Adelaide United 2 (Ibusuki 45+1′, Toure 59′)
Half-time: 0-1
HBF Park
Attendance: 6657
Referee: Alireza Faghani
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (GK) (12.Cameron COOK (GK), 46′) 5.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, 8.Kosuke OTA, 9.Bruno FORNAROLI, 11.Nick FITZGERALD (10.Andy KEOGH 56′), 13.Brandon O’NEILL (C), 14.Jack CLISBY (7.Adrian SARDINERO 69′), 18.Daniel STYNES (24.Pacifique NIYONGABIRE 56′), 19.Callum TIMMINS, 21.Antonee BURKE-GILROY (22.Josh RAWLINS 82′), 29.Darryl LACHMAN
Substitutes not used: 16.Darko STANOJEVIC, 26.Giordano COLLI
Yellow Cards: Fornaroli
Red Cards: None
Adelaide United: 46.Joe GAUCI (GK), 7.Ryan KITTO, 10.ISAIAS (18.Joe CALETTI 81′), 11.Craig GOODWIN, 14.George BLACKWOOD (17.Mohamed TOURE 56′), 15.Hiroshi IBUSUKI (6.Louis D’ARRIGO 81′), 21.Javi LOPEZ, 23.Jacob TRATT, 25.Lachlan BARR (22.Michael JAKOBSEN 46′), 28.JUANDE, 31.Bernardo OLIVEIRA (66.Nestory IRANKUNDA 76′)
Substitutes not used: 50.Steven HALL (GK), 16.Nathan KONSTANDOPOULOS
Yellow Cards: Barr, Tratt, Ibusuki
Red Cards: None
#OneGlory
