Thank God it’s over.
Perth Glory’s season from hell has finally come to an end as they were comprehensively thrashed 7-1 by a red-hot Sydney FC outfit.
Sydney’s star foreign players Robert Mak and Joe Lolley were the standout players in the game, both ending with two goals to their name.
The Sky Blues took the lead early on in the contest following a wide free kick that found Jordan Courtney-Perkins, who was able to head the ball home powerfully from close range, and disappointingly, unchallenged.
In fairness to the Glory, they responded reasonably well to the early goal, as Stefan Colakovski should’ve found the equaliser for Alen Stajcic’s side just 12 minutes in.
Daniel Bennie played a delightful slide rule ball to the advantage of Colakovski, who botched his one on one chance against Andrew Redmayne, by hitting it straight at the keeper.
Adam Taggart had a chance in the 25th minute, unfortunately, his strike from outside the box was wide of the mark but it showed that the front two Glory players were alert and hunting for any scraps to feed on.
Thirty-three minutes in, and Josh Rawlins whipped in a delightful cross from the left-hand side where on this occasion it was just a bit too high and wide for either Colakovski or Adam Taggart to get themselves onto it.
From there, Sydney put their foot on the pedal and really got going. They punished the Glory’s inability to execute in front of goal and found themselves 3-0 up at the break.
The second goal of the game came via a Jaiden Kucharski strike that was parried by Oli Sail only to land straight at Lolley, who was able to bundle the ball in.
Luke Brattan then converted a penalty for the Sky Blues in added time, in somewhat of a controversial manner, given the handball decision on Giordano Colli seemed quite harsh.
In the second half, the Glory start was much better than how they ended the first, with Adam Taggart launching a missile from inside the box into the top right corner in the 57th minute, getting the Glory back on the game.
On a personal note for Taggart, that was his 20th goal of the season, which just showcased why he’s the best striker in the league but also, how ridiculous this carry job has been from the Socceroo.
Sadly, not long after, any hope of a comeback was dashed as Stajcic went to the bench and brought on a lot of young players, which was great to see in terms of them getting their opportunities, but unfortunately, this also coincided with the floodgates opening for Sydney.
Watching the Mak goal back, which made it 4-1 to Sydney, some of the efforts from a few of the players were really poor. It was too easy for Lolley to burst through and get a shot away, which then led to Mak heading the ball home into an empty net.
For the fifth goal, it was also way too easy. Glory’s defence got split open as Mak made the run in behind, round the goalkeeper and made it 5-1 for Ufuk Talay’s side.
For Joel King’s goal, it was just really bad defending again. Bruce Kamau was at right back, but his body shape was just so poor and just showed his unfamiliarity with that role. King was able to receive in acres of space and fire home a powerful shot across the goal, to make it six.
Sydney made it seven and at that point, most Glory fans probably had turned the Paramount+ stream off, if this goal wasn’t the final nail in the coffin. Lolley could cut inside and shoot from way out and the ball somehow found its way into the back of the net.
I feel like either myself or fellow Far Post Perth contributor, Jaxon Bassett, whenever we write up our respective reviews have labelled many Perth Glory performances, not just this season, as either disappointing or embarrassing, and we’ve probably run out of words to describe the performances at this point.
This season has been tough, there’s no question about it. But the capitulation over the last eight weeks has been pretty scary and very poor from all involved. Yes, having the contract talks take place during that period probably contributed to the drop in form, but the fact we conceded 23 goals in our last four games has been embarrassing.
The hope has to be that this time we actually see serious change heading into next season. The pressure’s on for some clear, substantive action to be taken by the club to ensure that when fans walk into HBF Park next season, there’s a very noticeable difference in the team’s makeup and performance on the pitch.
About the Author
