The Perth Glory NYL team went down 5-1 against Melbourne Heart in the Foxtel National Youth League at Epping Stadium in Melbourne on Saturday.
The Perth Glory NYL Team went down 5-1 against the Melbourne Heart in the Foxtel National Youth League at Epping Stadium in Melbourne on Saturday.
The game, played out in sweltering conditions, seemed to take it’s toll on the Glory NYL side and after a morale boosting win last week they were unable serve up a repeat performance.
There was A League experience throughout the Glory side with players such as Ryan Edwards, Adrian Zahra, Cameron Edwards, and Matthew Davies featuring and they would have been confident of taking something from the game but Heart started the brightest and after two early goals Glory were always on the back foot in the heat at Epping Stadium.
Luck played a part in the Melbourne Heart first goal with the break through coming after a fortuitous deflection six minutes in. A cross that cannoned off Glory defender Josh Tucker and on to the crossbar fell invitingly to Heart striker Ersin Kaya who headed in to an empty net to put Heart one up.
It wasn-t long until it was two nil with full back Jeremy Walker working his way down the right flank and superbly crossing for Espindola to finished from point-blank range.
This seemed to kick start Glory and they were rewarded in the 28th minute when Ryan Edwards curled in a spectacular goal from 30 yards out to bring his side back into the contest.
However, Perth’s resistance was broken once again just before the break when Dao calmly finished past Glory keeper Luke Radonich after more clever work from Walker.
HT 3-1
After the half time period Melbourne Heart once again bounced out of the blocks strongest and immediately put the Glory rearguard under pressure. A defence splitting pass saw Luke O’Dea through on goal and after showing strength and poise, he cut inside and finished clinically past Radonich on 55 minutes.
Heart managed to add a fifth, four minutes later when Radonich managed to get a hand to a Espindola shot but failed to keep the ball out the net with the Glory keeper maybe feeling he could have done a little better with the effort.
In the end the heat took its toll on both sides but the Heart defence stood tall to deter Glory on numerous occasions as the game drew to a close.
Melbourne Heart 5 (Kaya 6′, Espindola 19′ 59′, Dao 43′, O’Dea 55′)
Perth Glory 1 (Edwards 28′)
Melbourne Heart: 1. Marco Stevanja (GK), 2. Jeremy Walker, 3. Phillip Petreski (13. Joseph Katebian 60′), 4. David Vrankovic, 5. Ross Archibald (C), 6. Alexander Dao, 7. Hernan Espindola (10. Jonathan Bounas 60′), 9. Luke O’Dea, 12. Andrew Mullett, 14. Ersin Kaya (11. Stipo Andrijasevic 60′), 15. Sam Mitchinson
Perth Glory: 1. Luke Radonich, 2. Matthew Davies, 3. Brandon O’Neill, 4. Ryan Edwards, 5. Josh Tucker (15. Alexander Castiello 59′), 6. Harry O’Brien, 8. Cameron Edwards, 9. Ndumba Makeche, 10. Adrian Zahra, 11. Borbor Sam (14. Sean Troup 45′) 17. Jacob Collard
