In the six seasons I’ve been watching the Glory since reconnecting passionately with football, I don’t think I’ve seen a worse performance than the one on the weekend.
It was such a stark contrast to the midweek fixture against the Victory at home. On Wednesday night, we stayed in the contest and had chances to take something away from it.
Against Newcastle, we bombed and bombed hard. The box office Jets put on an Oscar worthy show for their home fans. For the Perth supporters watching in WA, they got another Golden Raspberry nomination.
If the fortunes of the club going forward are to change, this game could prove to be the turning point. The blowtorch has been applied to Tony Sage and Tony Pignata; their responses have been vastly different.
The CEO faced the music and gave answers to fans’ questions on social media. He spoke honestly and openly about a range of topics, including the injury list, the search for a permanent coach and compensation for fans with Wednesday’s “home” fixture against Wellington to be played in Sydney.
On the other side, the owner decided to label some of the supporters “keyboard warriors” and questioned their love of the club. We do support the young talent who are getting an opportunity to break through, but they shouldn’t escape a bit of criticism if they have a bad day at the office. We know they’re capable, just look at the Victory game like Tony Sage said.
The issue the fans have isn’t with the young players. It’s with the unnecessary off field drama, which has plagued this season and some before it. Hopefully it gets fixed in the off season. If you want good analysis of our current situation, have a listen to the latest podcast episode with Blayne, Neil, and Tommy if you haven’t already.
For now, lets get away from the problems off the pitch and focus on what happened on it at McDonald Jones Stadium. Six goals shifted and we now have the fourth worst defensive record in the league.
The nature of the goals we conceded disappointed me the most. I think most of the goals were preventable if we didn’t make mistakes, but credit to the Jets for being ruthless in front of goal and making the most of their opportunities.
To be honest, it could have been a lot worse if debutant Jayden Gorman had been sent off for his terrible tackle on Daniel Penha. When it went to VAR, I thought it was a foregone conclusion he was seeing red. Fortunately for the Glory, he stayed on.
It didn’t stop Penha from making his mark though. He opened the account in the 21st minute. Valentino Yuel got beyond Antonee Burke-Gilroy and found the Brazilian unmarked running into the box. Under no pressure, his first-time finish found the corner. Jack Clisby and Giordano Colli were both in the box marking space near the penalty area, one of them should have kept an eye on his run or covered the space on the edge of the box.
We didn’t learn from the first time though. The same thing nearly happened minutes later. This time it was Savvas Siatravanis getting free out wide and cutting it back to Penha. Josh Rawlins bailed us out that time with a goal line block and clearing header away.
Two of the other goals we conceded were due to defenders not stepping up in time. For the second goal, an incredible volley pass by Matt Jurman from defence found Mikeltadze. Played onside by Darryl Lachman, he got around the big defender and shot across the keeper. Liam Reddy could only stick a leg out but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Georgian from finding the net.
The other instance of this occurring was the sixth goal, scored by Valentino Yuel. Ciaran Bramwell received a pass from Osama Malik. As soon as he turned, Brandon Wilson was there. His interception pass got to Yuel, who turned and scored past a stricken Reddy. Josh Rawlins was the man playing him onside on this occasion.
It wasn’t just the defence that was off. The whole flow of the team didn’t look right from the word go. We got dominated in the first half, not just on the scoresheet. Apparently, we had one shot in the first half. Newcastle pressed us hard and we couldn’t deal with it. The pressure they put us under was immense. Having said that, we didn’t find a way to alleviate that pressure.
The second half was an improvement once the game was beyond doubt. A small consolation to take away was that we found the back of the net, and it was Ciaran Bramwell who did it. A very good long diagonal pass from Mitch Oxborrow opened up space for Jack Clisby. He managed to get a low cross into the box and Bramwell was there to get a flick on it and beat Jack Duncan in goal.
Newcastle can look back fondly on this fixture. Its hard to pick a couple of players who stood out, all of them were good. A lot of recognition goes to the attack, Penha and Mikeltadze played superbly again. I thought Matt Jurman had a great game at centre half, and Valentino Yuel was excellent at applying pressure from the front.
The Glory have to lick their wounds and heal up for Wednesday’s clash against the Nix. Another long distance derby in New South Wales is unusual, but that best describes the situation both teams have found themselves in this season. It can’t get much worse for the Glory, all I hope for on Wednesday is an improved performance and to bring back some of the defensive resilience we showed earlier in the season.
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