Glory moved to within three points of Westfield W-League leaders Melbourne Victory after battling out a lively 2-2 draw with Newcastle Jets at Dorrien Gardens.
Leticia McKenna bagged her second goal of the season to hand the hosts an early lead, before two quickfire efforts from the impressive Katie Stengel put the Jets in front.
The complexion of the game changed again moments later, however, when the visitors lost Larissa Crummer to a 25th-minute red card after she brought down fellow-Matilda Sam Kerr in the box.
Kerr slammed home the resulting penalty, but the Jets showed admirable resilience to go toe-to-toe with Glory for the remainder of an exciting contest that kept a crowd of 652 enthralled throughout.
And there was very nearly a fairytale finish for Shannon May, with only the woodwork preventing the Glory midfielder from marking her historic 100th W-League appearance with a goal.
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Glory Head Coach Bobby Despotovski, meanwhile, was understandably frustrated by his side’s inability to exploit their numerical advantage, but quick to praise the efforts of Newcastle.
“It’s disappointing not to have won,” he said.
“They [Newcastle] played very well with ten, but I’m disappointed that we decided to go direct.
“Sometimes you get a false sense of security when playing against ten and just start to lump it and that just makes it easier for them to defend.
“If we’d done everything we spoke about at half time, I’m sure we’d have got all three points.
“At the end of the day, I think Newcastle deserved a point as they defended very, very well.
“Now it’s a quick turnaround ahead of the Sydney FC game on Friday, we’ll have Alyssa [Mautz] and Jacynta [Galabadaarachchi] back and we usually play well at nib Stadium, so we look forward to it.”
Glory got off to the best possible start, McKenna firing her side in front via the underside of the bar after the Jets defence had failed to clear Nikki Stanton’s corner.
But the visitors rallied following that early setback and stunned Despotovski’s side with two goals in the space of a minute.
The first came when Taylor Smith capped a surging run from deep by playing in Stengel who crashed her shot past the helpless Eliza Campbell.
And the same combination then breached Glory’s defence again almost immediately, this time Stengel finding the net after Smith had picked her out with a cross-shot from the left.
A dramatic first-half took another twist seven minutes later when Crummer tripped Kerr as the Glory skipper raced in on goal and received a straight red card from referee Lara Lee.
Kerr took responsibility for the spot-kick herself and beat Britt Eckerstrom all ends up with an unstoppable strike.
Seemingly undaunted by their numerical inferiority, the visitors began the second half brightly and came close to restoring their lead when Jenna Kingsley found herself in a one-on-one situation with Campbell only for the Glory ‘keeper to foil her with a fine, sprawling save.
Campbell’s opposite number, Eckerstrom, then acquitted herself equally well on the hour-mark, denying Kerr after she had been sent clean through on goal by Natasha Rigby’s long ball.
The ebb and flow continued as Arin Gilliland-Wright failed to hit the target when well-placed before Eckerstrom pulled off three more impressive saves at the other end to keep out strikes from Kerr, May and substitute Caitlin Doeglas.
As the game moved into stoppage-time, Glory cranked up the pressure and May came within centimetres of bringing up her century in sensational style when her angled strike cannoned back off the inside of the post.
Eckerstrom then capped a superb individual performance by producing yet another quality stop, this time to block Stanton’s free-kick right at the death.
Match Details
Westfield W-League Round 7
Perth Glory 2 (McKenna 4′, Kerr (pen) 27′) Newcastle Jets 2 (Stengel 17′, 18′)
Half-time: 2-2
Referee: Lara Lee
Assistant Referee 1: Joanna Charaktis
Assistant Referee 2: Matthew Southern
Fourth Official: Josh Mannella
Perth Glory: 1.Eliza CAMPBELL (gk), 3.Kim CARROLL, 5.Shannon MAY, 7.Nicole STANTON , 9.Rachel HILL, 11.Leticia MCKENNA (14.Caitlin DOEGLAS 50′) , 12.Jenna ONIONS (13.Jamie-Lee GALE 56′), 18. Isabella FOLETTA (22.Abbey GREEN 68′), 20.Sam KERR (c), 24.Natasha RIGBY, 25.Katie NAUGHTON
Substitutes not used: 23.Stacey CAVILL (gk)
Yellow cards: Stanton
Red cards: Nil
Newcastle Jets FC: 28.Britt ECKERSTROM (gk), 2.Hannah BREWER, 5.Arin GILLILAND-WRIGHT (4.Libby COPUS-BROWN, 71′), 6.Cassidy DAVIS, 7.Gema SIMON, 9.Katie STENGEL, 10.Emily VAN EGMOND, 14.Taylor SMITH (25.Teigan COLLISTER 85′), 17.Jenna KINGSLEY (11.Cortnee VINE 64′), 18.Clare WHEELER, 22.Larissa CRUMMER
Substitutes not used: 20.Claire COELHO (gk)
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Crummer
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