Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “football, bloody hell”. Friday night’s game was perhaps the best homage to that iconic quote.
Perth Glory defeated the Western Sydney Wanderers in perhaps one of the most extraordinary games of the season, as Ruben Zadkovich’s side returned to HBF Park for the first time in over 300 days.
For those that went to the game, there was a buzz around the ground, especially as the game grew on and while Macedonia Park had been a great temporary venue for the Glory, there is no place like home.
The game got off to a really bizarre start, as Glory defender Jordan Elsey received a red card from a tackle that saw the defender’s boot graze the calf of Wanderers’ winger Yeni Ngbakoto.
Perhaps it was a harsh decision to give the red card that early in the game, but by the letter of the law and especially what we’ve seen this season with those tackles, referees often tend to hand out pretty severe punishments for those actions.
This left the Glory with quite a mountain to climb, as already the Wanderers came into this clash in great form – 10 goals in their prior three games and two clean sheets in their last two.
During the first half, it was one-way traffic. The Wanderers maintained possession, as they looked to break down the Glory, who were forced to defend for large periods of the game.
The away side had a few opportunities but they didn’t really take their chances with any sort of conviction.
Morgan Schneiderlin came close to opening the scoreline, but a smart save from Cameron Cook denied Marko Rudan’s side from taking the lead.
Glory had a couple of opportunities themselves in the first half, but like the Wanderers, they didn’t have the clinical edge to take their chances.
The second half came, and the game continued in the same manner, where the Wanderers had the lion’s share of possession and Glory defended deep.
The away side came very close on a couple of occasions, one from Miloš Ninković who missed from right in front of the goal and young Calem Nieuwenhof, who had a few long-range strikes but was unfortunate not to have any of them go in.
In the 84th minute, that was the moment when the game changed and the crowd really started to help the team on. Former Glory man, Tomislav Mrčela, dragged down David Williams following the forward nabbing the ball from him.
This forced Alex King to give the big defender a red card and from there it was game on for Ruben Zadkovich’s side.
Late into added time, Ryan Williams ran down the left wing and crossed the ball into the box which the Wanderers cleared, only for the ball to land down at Aaron McEneff, who chested the ball down and volleyed it, with the aid of a massive deflection, into the back of the net.
The whole stadium went into raptures. The noise was incredible.
Sure, it was a smash-and-grab win, but you’d take that result any day of the week, especially given the circumstances.
I have been rather critical towards the Glory over the last few weeks, but that was a very solid performance. But Friday’s win showed that the players had a very strong resilience and character about them, especially when they play at home.
The number of times a player would fling themselves in the way of a strike or haul themselves back into a position ready to defend was fantastic, the type of work rate that the fans and Ruben Zadkovich want to see.
Special mentions to Cameron Cook, Mark Beevers, Keegan Jelacic and Aaron McEneff with his goal.
Those four were some of the best out there, as Cook made some tremendous saves, Beevers was making some impressive tackles, Jelacic continued to stake his claim as the next El Maestro and McEneff’s goal was absolute class.
Now, this game would be a great learning opportunity for the Glory, as there were clearly things that went well and other areas where we need a bit more work.
But either way, this win has given the Glory a small yet fighting chance of making an appearance in the finals.
The Glory will travel to Newcastle next Sunday, where they will need to get all three points if they want to continue this belief that they can make the finals.
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