Perth Glory were unable to close the gap on the top six as they went down to a 4-1 defeat against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Full match highlights available HERE.
A victory would have taken Ruben Zadkovich’s side into the Finals places and they looked a chance to do exactly that after Adam Zimarino slammed home his maiden A-League goal at the end of the first half to cancel out Adam Le Fondre’s early opener for the hosts.
But the Sky Blues took control following the restart, with Joe Lolley restoring their lead before Robert Mak and Rhyan Grant completed the scoring.
The result leaves Glory four points outside the top six with two games left to play, both at home and while naturally disappointed by the performance and result, Zadkovich does not believe that the Finals race is over.
View his full post-match media conference HERE.
“They [Sydney FC] have a star-studded frontline and we knew where their threats were,” he said.
“We just didn’t deal with it well enough tonight.
“I’d say it was a little lack of understanding and a little bit of naivete in moments, but at the end of the day, we were beaten by the better team.
“First-half, I thought we played ourselves back into the game and in patches we held our own.
“But to start the second half so poorly, on the back foot and concede such a soft goal, that really gave Sydney the ascendancy and I don’t think we ever really recovered from that situation.
“I haven’t looked at the table, but at home we’ve been very good this year.
“We’re obviously a club that still has a lot of moving parts and a lot of changes in this build.
“Tonight we definitely missed some of our key players; our leading goalscorer and our three foreigners.
“We’re missing them at the wrong time, but at home we’ll bounce back next week and look to go again.”
Roared on by an away bay packed with members of the Glory Shed Supporters Club on their 20th anniversary Tour of Duty, Glory began brightly and yet fell behind when Sydney took their first chance of the game eight minutes in.
A swift counter-attack led by initiated by Max Burgess culminated in Grant sliding the ball across goal where Le Fondre was on hand to apply the simplest of finishes.
Glory’s response was an effort from Adam Taggart which forced Andrew Redmayne into an unconvincing, scrambling save and the Socceroos frontman then went close again, this time firing over the bar having been picked out by Mustafa Amini.
Two minutes later, however, the visitors made their breakthrough and did so in style.
Amini was again involved, this time spotting Zimarino racing into the box and the 21-year-old calmly curled a superb effort beyond Redmayne into the far corner.
When Taggart forced a fingertip save from Redmayne early in the second half, it looked as if Glory could push on and claim a win which would have turned the Finals race on its head.
But instead it was Steve Corica’s men who seized the initiative as Le Fondre combined with compatriot Lolley and the former Nottingham Forest midfielder clipped a shot past Cook to make it 2-1.
Mak duly extended the home side’s lead ten minutes later, capping a slaloming run into the box with a neat finish and when Grant forced home an Anthony Caceres’ cross from point-blank range 17 minutes from time, there was no way back for the men in white.
Match Details
ISUZU UTE A-League 2022/23 Season Round 24
Sunday 16 April 2023
Sydney FC 4 (Le Fondre 8′, Lolley 51′, Mak 62′, Grant 72′) Perth Glory 1 (Zimarino 44′)
Half-time: 1-1
Allianz Stadium
Referee: Shaun Evans
Sydney FC: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 3. Joel KING, 4. Alex WILKINSON (c), 6. Jack RODWELL, 9. Adam LE FONDRE (8. Paulo RETRE 76′), 10. Joe LOLLEY, 11. Robert MAK (19. Adrian SEGECIC 83′), 17. Anthony CACERES, 22. Max BURGESS (25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI 87′), 23. Rhyan GRANT (28. Jake GIRDWOOD-REICH 87′), 26. Luke BRATTAN (12. Pat WOOD 76′) Â
Substitutes not used: 2. James DONACHIE, 20. Thomas HEWARD-BELLE (GK)
Yellow Cards: King, Grant
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 13.Cameron COOK (gk), 7.Ryan WILLIAMS (36.Joseph FORDE 83′), 8.Mustafa AMINI (c), 14.Jack CLISBY (31.Chris DONNELL 76′), 15.Jordan ELSEY, 16.Keegan JELACIC (28.Trent OSTLER 76′), 19.Zach DUNCAN, 21.Antonee BURKE-GILROY (4.Luke BODNAR 63′), 22.Adam TAGGART, 29.Darryl LACHMAN, 43.Adam ZIMARINO
Substitutes not used: 30.Pierce CLARK (gk), 37.Jacob MUIR
Yellow Cards: Zimarino
Red Cards: None
#ONEGlory
