A late header from Aleksandar Šušnjar wasn’t enough for the Glory, who despite the tight scoreline were comprehensively beaten by the Brisbane Roar, 2-1.
Goals from Henry Hore and Jay O’Shea were enough for the Roar despite the late scare from Šušnjar’s header.
What was really clear when watching the game, the Glory struggled to gain any sort of ascendency, particularly from the midfield despite having Oliver Bozanic back in the team.
The first half was one-way traffic from the Roar. The below numbers don’t make for great reading for the Glory.
The Roar had 70% possession, nine shots, six inside the box, two on target and five corners.
Compare that to the Glory’s three shots, with just the one being on target.
Ross Aloisi’s team started and ended the half very strongly, as it looked like it was gonna be one of those typical away games from the Perth Glory.
In fairness to Alen Stajcic’s side, they came out relatively well in the second half.
However, Brisbane still had somewhat of a strong edge. Thomas Waddingham had a great chance saved by Cameron Cook early on in the second half.
The Roar then broke the deadlock in the 56th minute, following a low and hard strike from Henry Hore.
You have to say that Brisbane deserved the lead.
They then doubled it just under 10 minutes later. Some pinballing actions around the Glory’s box lead to Jay O’Shea’s strike from just outside the box to give the Roar the two-goal advantage.
It was pretty ordinary defending from the Glory and you could argue despite the spectacular earlier save, Cam Cook probably should’ve done better.
From there, the Glory gave it a little more of a go but for me, the decision-making at times was incredibly poor.
Brisbane allowed a lot more space in their midfield and defensive thirds, where our forward players struggled to really take an opportunity, whether it be Luke Ivanovic with a pass that totally missed Jarrod Carluccio, Stefan Colakovski making the wrong decision in the box that one moment, or even Trent Ostler trying to volley it when a simple cross would’ve sufficed.
The important thing, however, is yes, they are young players and yes, they will make mistakes as they develop and more importantly, they will get better with further experience – that’s essential to point out.
However, Alen Stajcic and the Glory coaches clearly trusted the young guys to get something out of the game in the second half and unfortunately, they didn’t do all that much.
Aaron McEneff, however, had a strong impact off the bench. His tidy work around the edge of the box led to a free kick, where his strike was very close to going in, only for it to smash against the crossbar but fortunately for the Glory, Aleksandar Šušnjar was there to head the ball home.
It was a consolation finish, however, we did deserve at least something from the game.
That being said, overall, it wasn’t good enough.
The away form is still diabolical. The inability to execute the basic fundamentals of the game was apparent and, fatigue or not, you have to at least do the small yet simple things well.
How we struggled to go toe to toe with the Roar annoyed me the most. We couldn’t control the midfield and the lack of movement or variety from our front four was non-existent at times.
Plenty of work will need to be done, as everyone, players or staff would know that performance wasn’t good enough and we’ll have to clearly put in a much better showing in a difficult away trip to Sydney FC next Saturday.
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