A rather disappointing performance from the Perth Glory, as they went down 2-1 to Brisbane away from home.
While there is still a slight possibility that the Glory can make the finals, today was a pretty big blow in our aspirations to return to the top 6 for the first time since the 2019/20 season.
It was a bright start from Ruben Zadkovich’s side, as Adam Taggart’s header was hacked off the line by Henry Hore.
Fortunately for the Glory, it didn’t take them long to find the opener as a wonderful switch of play by Mustafa Amini was brought down well by Jack Clisby, who after an excellent first touch, curled the ball home with his weak foot into the bottom right corner.
Unfortunately, the lead lasted barely 10 minutes, as Tom Aldred got on the end of former Glory man Carlo Armiento’s corner to equalise for the Roar.
From that moment, Nick Green’s side began to play with a bit more confidence, as their passing at times was a lot more crisp and sharp, while their overall play was more expressive.
Moments before the half-time interval, Glory skipper Mustafa Amini was caught in possession and Nikola Mileusnic found Henry Hore who then fired his shot low into the bottom right corner.
Question marks were raised by fans over the defending of both goals and unfortunately, the microscope was placed on young goalkeeper, Cameron Cook.
It appeared as though he was dominated in that aerial contest for the first goal and wasn’t assured enough to stop the shot for the second.
Don’t get me wrong, he is a very talented goalkeeper and more importantly, he is young and still learning his craft.
But at the same time, if Liam Reddy or Brad Jones had made those mistakes on the frequency Cook has done, then serious question marks would be raised.
Perhaps a spell out of the starting eleven is needed for the young keeper to regain some confidence and then when the opportunity arises, he grabs that chance with both hands.
The second half for the Glory was pretty uninspiring in all honesty.
Only Aaron McEneff’s early chance from outside the box and Adam Zimarino’s long-range effort that smacked the post were the notable chances we created.
Before I go on with my post-match thoughts, I’d just like to send my best thoughts and wishes to Darryl Lachman.
The head injury he sustained did not look good at all and he appeared to be in some discomfort. He is an integral member of the squad and let’s hope for a speedy recovery, as he will be missed.
Now, my immediate reflections on the game are that we fumbled the bag, pretty badly.
I felt that before the game, our line up was superior to the Roar’s on paper.
We had Adam Taggart leading the line again, along with Mustafa Amini and Darryl Lachman returning to the side. I and I’m sure many others would agree with this, that this was our best line up.
Yet despite this being our best line up, we didn’t exactly look that accomplished in either of the major phases of the game.
Sure, we had a lot of possession, which was somewhat strange given we had some success in the last few games from sitting back and hitting teams on the break.
But the domination in possession never really led to a huge amount of chances created.
Adam Taggart had next to no service. He was essentially on a graveyard shift. He had next to nothing to work with, which again, isn’t a surprise.
Think back to earlier in the season. Bruno Fornaroli, Ben Azubel, David Williams, and Luke Ivanovic were not scoring that many goals because we couldn’t create clear-cut chances for our strikers.
Today, we had 25 crosses. Only two were on target. Neither side really created that many chances either, which was also reflected in the xG from open play, but Brisbane were far more ruthless when they had their opportunities.
Defensively, questions have to be asked. We have the third-worst defensive record, despite playing with a back five, which doesn’t make sense to me.
Either way, the team need to reset and gather themselves quickly, as we have another difficult game on the road to Western United next week and if we want to give ourselves a fighting chance of making the finals, if there is any, then we’ve got to get three points there.
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