Nearly all of the emotion football can conjure up was experienced by the 6083 fans who witnessed one of the craziest games of the season at HBF Park.
Both teams were leading in added time, yet none of them walked away with the three points. For all the excitement and ecstasy at the death, the joy of victory wasn’t to be found.
Losing the game in the 90th minute, scoring twice to take the lead and then conceding an equaliser a minute later; I doubt there’s another team in world football who has done that.
It was the most Perth Glory thing possible. To not close the game out in that situation was incredibly disheartening, but in all honesty we were probably a bit fortunate to be in that position in the first place.
Adelaide controlled the match and had the better of the chances. Twice as many shots, both on and off target, and an xG of 3.37 to 1.18.
There’s a reason why Carl Veart’s team are fighting for second and Ruben Zadkovich’s troops are battling for sixth. The Reds are a more polished side and showed it on the weekend.
Their movement off the ball and their ability to find an outlet pass was better than ours, most noticeably in the first half. On quite a few occasions when a Glory player had the ball in the defensive areas, there was a lack of passing options and almost no penetrating passes. The long ball was utilised more often than not, using the pace of Williams and Taggart in behind to create chances and get further up the pitch.
While I’m not the biggest fan of it, the plan worked and the reward was the opening goal.
Luke Bodnar was the man to make the pass into the path of Williams, controlling it down with his head and then coolly dinking the ball over Gauci to give us the lead against the run of play.
Almost instantly the lead was wiped away by one of Adelaide’s teenage brigade. A loose ball in the box was pounced on by Ryan Kitto, his first attempt blocked but then his second poked away from Cameron Cook and to the waiting Luka Jovanovic for an easy tap in.
The Reds came out of the blocks stronger after the break and didn’t take long to take the lead. Ben Halloran was in space after advantage was played by referee Jack Morgan. His cross deflected off Jack Clisby and rebounded off the post kindly for Craig Goodwin, running in for the easiest of his 50 goals for his hometown club.
Not giving in, the Glory managed to get back on level terms quickly to set up an exciting ending. Again Bodnar was involved, winning a 50/50 tackle and finding Williams on the left. Spotting his strike partner in the middle, his cross was swung in high and met by Taggart, leaping over Ben Warland to head home his first Glory goal at HBF Park in six years.
As the game entered its final 20 minutes, the substitutions kicked the intensity up a gear as the football became more end to end. Nestory Irankunda took advantage of an unaware Mustafa Amini and looked clean through until Trent Ostler got back and did enough to prevent the young gun from getting a clear shot away.
Irankunda looked the most likely to find another goal, and although it wasn’t him, Adelaide did get back into the lead. Following a corner, no one tracked the run of Goodwin on the left. In plenty of space, his shot somehow cannoned off the post and rebounded back into the middle. Ryan Kitto was first on hand to put it away for his second goal contribution of the match.
A rash challenge from Goodwin on Amini marked the beginning to a crazy end. A throw in from Ostler in the 93rd minute entered the box and a scramble ensued. In a flurry of bodies trying to get the ball, Adam Zimarino emerged with it, shooting across his body and scoring for the second week in a row to keep our season kicking.
The scene was set for a hero to emerge, and in Adam Taggart it did. Mark Beevers’ clearance found the striker with space in front of him. With options on the left and the right, Taggart went alone and struck a superb shot into the bottom left corner, sending the Glory faithful into raptures.
The storybook ending should have wrapped up there, but Irankunda wrote his own final chapter with a low driven finish in the 99th minute and a backflip to boot. An eighth goal in his career breaking the record for most goals by a player before turning 18.
Adelaide are still in the box seat for second with that draw but will walk away feeling like they should have got the three points. Kitto at left back had a very good outing with a goal and assist; Irankunda was a threat straight away off the bench, getting on the end of many chances and causing chaos when he moved to the wing after initially playing through the middle.
The feeling after the final whistle was pure dejection. I would have taken a draw in the 90th minute but going ahead in the last minute of added time and losing it a minute later has pretty much put the penultimate nail in the coffin of our finals push. Our hopes rest on Macarthur beating Wellington in order to still be in the race by the time we kick off for what could be the final game of the season.
No matter what happens beforehand, the aim will be to get a victory to cap off what has been a remarkable home record in front of the Glory faithful.
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