Riley Warland’s late penalty earned the PGFC Academy First Team a deserved share of the spoils as they fought out a 2-2 draw with Perth SC in Saturday evening’s NPL WA season-opener at Dorrien Gardens.
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The home side took an early lead against the run of play when former Glory duo Calvin Whitney and Michael Domfeh combined, the former playing in the latter who forced the ball past Cameron Cook at the second attempt.
Ruben Zadkovich’s side continued to look the more likely as the first half wore on and duly restored parity when Bryce Bafford’s initial shot was parried by Ryan Montgomery and the alert Charlie Leech pounced to rattle in the rebound.
Moment later, the lively Cameron Teece struck the bar for Perth SC with an audacious, long-range lob and it was the former Sorrento man who would subsequently restore his side’s lead midway through the second half.
Glory skipper Giordano Colli was adjudged to have tripped Whitney in the box and Teece calmly converted from the spot.
Stung by that setback, the Glory youngsters immediately set about pressing for an equaliser and they finally found one three minutes from time, Bojan Radinovic’s foul on Bafford handing Warland the opportunity to level things up from the spot which he took with no fuss whatsoever.
A pulsating contest continued to keep the Dorrien Gardens crowd enthralled right into stoppage-time when Cook produced a superb reaction save to keep Kieran Colwell at bay.
https://players.brightcove.net/5498268486001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6242823214001
Earlier in the day, Glory’s Under-18s and Under-20s had secured respective 2-2 and 0-0 draws.
All three teams return to action next Saturday when reigning NPL WA Champions Floreat Athena will provide the opposition at Crazy Domains Stadium at Hartfield Park.
The Under-18s get things underway at 1pm, followed by the Under-20s at 5pm and the First Team at 7pm.
Match Details
NPLWA 2021 Round 1
Perth SC 2 (Domfeh 9′, Teece (pen) 63′) Perth Glory 2 (Leech 24′, Warland (pen) 89′)
Half-time: 1-1
Dorrien Gardens
Referee: Shane Skinner
Perth SC: 1.Ryan MONTGOMERY (gk), 2.Alex SILLA, 3.Jordan DE LEO (c) (8.Riley VAN Dieken 81′), 4.Lachlan BYRD, 6.Nic MCDONALD, 10.Michael DOMFEH (20.Gustavo CATARACIONE 74′), 13.Calvin WHITNEY, 16.Kieran COLWELL, 17.Cameron TEECE, 19.Bojan RADINOVIC, 22.Kristian SANTICH
Substitutes not used: 7.Alex JOVIC, 15.Will GORDON, 23.Adrian SINAGRA (gk)
Yellow Cards: Silla, De Leo
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 1.Cameron COOK, 3.Jacob MUIR, 4.Riley WARLAND, 5.Nick WALSH, 6.Joseph FORDE, 7.Aidan EDWARDS (12.Lewis TUCKER 81′), 8.Chris DONNELL, 9.Charlie LEECH (13.Lucas ROSSI 69′), 10.Giordano COLLI, 11.Adam ZIMARINO, 17.Bryce BAFFORD
Substitutes not used: 1.Sam REILLY (gk), 2.Hugo SNOWDEN, 15.Aidan COYNE
Yellow Cards: None
Red Cards: None
(picture courtesy of Tom McCarthy)
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