Even on a winning day for the Perth Glory, there’s always another talking point to take a little shine off an important three points.
A 2-1 victory on the Central Coast was somewhat overshadowed by a series of Instagram posts prior to kick off regarding the line-up and notable absence of Bruno Fornaroli.
The official Glory account confirmed both Fornaroli and Mustafa Amini were absent for Sunday afternoons’ game through injury. This was denied by Fornaroli, who wrote “I’m 100% fit and ready” in a now deleted post.
In his post-match press conference, Ruben Zadkovich said Bruno ruled himself out with a rib injury on Friday, having missed the final training session. There are rumours his absence is not injury related, but down to a clause in his contract which would be automatically renewed if he scored a certain amount of goals.
Whatever the case may be, it’s not a good look for the club or for the player, who had a major falling out at Melbourne City under Warren Joyce. If we never see Fornaroli in Glory colours again, it will be a shame given his ability and what he’s brought to the club over the last few seasons.
If there’s one thing the fans do not want to see under any circumstances, it is for this problem to drag along and create a distraction from what is occurring on the field. We’re starting to see a clearer picture of our blueprint moving forward, and it’s looking better.
Zadkovich stuck with a back three for this game but opted for Johnny Koutroumbis on the right side over Jacob Muir. Salim Khelifi and Ryan Williams started out wide, with Mitch Oxborrow starting alongside Zach Duncan in the middle. Giordano Colli and Aaron McEneff played higher up the pitch with Ben Azubel as the sole striker.
Khelifi in particular is really finding his feet and getting comfortable on the left-hand side of the pitch. He was a bit timid against the Wanderers in round one, but since then he’s got into a nice groove of picking up the ball and trying to make things happen with it.
There is still a bit to be desired with his shooting; he had a couple of long-range efforts which hardly troubled Danny Vukovic in goal. He’s getting in good positions though and making defenders work.
A piece of play in the second half summed up his overall performance. A switch from Oxborrow was weighted perfectly over Khelifi’s man and straight onto his feet. He took a great touch and cut onto his right foot but couldn’t get a shot away. He’s got a touch of class we haven’t had since Castro; he just has to find some end product.
We were the better team in the opening stanza, but it didn’t show on the scoreboard at half time. The Mariners had one good chance after 45 minutes and put it away. Jason Cummings won a fifty-fifty ball on the edge of the area and cut the ball across the box towards the penalty area. Samuel Silvera was unmarked on the edge and had a free run onto the ball, which he lashed into the bottom left corner.
Most of the play from both sides came down the flanks, so it was no surprise all the goals came from out wide. Azubel, who didn’t see a lot of the ball but was very good when he did have it, fed a ball out wide to Williams late in the half. He created enough separation from Jacob Farrell to get a cross into the middle. Azubel attacked the ball and got in front of his man to win the header and force a great save out of Vukovic. The rebound fell to Colli who scored on the follow up.
For the second goal, the chance starts from a lofted pass out wide by Oxborrow. Williams got on the end of it and laid it off for Colli to whip into the middle. The Mariners defence failed to clear, leaving a loose ball for McEneff to pounce on, round the keeper and pass into an empty net for the lead.
After going ahead, we really dropped off and let the Mariners control the game. The defence was a little shaky at times; a Koutroumbis slip and mis control from Williams nearly opening the door for a Mariners chance, but for the most part we held firm and dealt with every shot the Mariners threw at us in the final 30 minutes.
Central Coast are winless in their two matches thus far but as we’ve seen by the table, one win is all it takes to make a decent leap in the table. The danger men Cummins and Beni N’Kololo were kept quiet throughout, as was substitute Garang Kuol. I thought Farrell had a good outing on the left side of defence and the centre back pairing of Kelechi John and Brian Kaltak were decent for the most part.
A very important away win lifts us up into the top six for the first time in a long time. The seeds have been planted and the growth has started, although Zadkovich admits there is still a way to go in terms of improvement. The fourth leg of our away trip takes us to Hindmarsh Stadium against an Adelaide side looking to bounce back after a controversial draw against Sydney. Everyone will want to know whether Fornaroli comes back into the side or not. All the Glory need to do is deal with it internally; we don’t need any more negativity just as we are starting to see some positives.
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