January 14, 2025
Australia’s A-League entered round 14, with the opening game being a meeting of 12th placed Perth Glory against 8th placed Western Sydney Wanderers. With the introduction of Auckland FC this season, the A-League now has 13 sides.
This would be Perth’s first appearance in these diaries, whilst Western Sydney Wanderers recently featured in their 3-2 victory at Adelaide United between Christmas and New Year.
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Perth Glory
Perth Glory were one of the eight founder members of the A-League in 2004, and home is the 20,500 capacity Perth Rectangular Stadium, which for sponsorship reasons is currently known as HBF Park.
Located in Western Australia, Perth is one of the most remote cities in the world, and A-League fixtures against sides in New Zealand involve journeys of over 5,000 kilometres and are reckoned to be amongst the longest for domestic league fixtures.
Perth won the 2018/19 Premiership but lost the Grand Final on penalties to Sydney FC. They also lost the Premiership Final in 2011/12, going down to Brisbane Roar 1-2 after a third placed finish in the regular season.
Perth have struggled in recent seasons, and last year they ended up in 12th place out of 12.
Perth Glory This Season
Perth have had a poor season so far, starting the day in 12th out of 13 with a 2-2-9 record. They had lost their first 5 home matches until last time out, when they upset high flying Auckland FC 1-0. Auckland were top of the league at the time.
Glory’s other victory this season had come in a 1-0 win at back-markers Brisbane Roar, whilst draws on the road had been achieved at Central Coast Mariners ( 0-0 ) and Adelaide United ( 2-2 ). With just 8 goals scored Perth had by far the worst attack, and the 33 goals conceded was also easily the worst in the A-League. They had though kept clean sheets in both their wins though !
Perth’s Australia Cup campaign ended at the first hurdle with a 2-3 at NPL Queensland side Moreton City Excelsior.
Perth’s average home attendance so far was 6,034
Perth Glory Squad
Perth’s captain is ex-Fulham and Dundee United striker Adam Taggart ( 19 caps ), who had previously featured in these diaries for South Korean side Suwon Samsung Bluewings, and had scored three of Perth’s 8 league goals this season.
Keeper Oliver Sail had 9 caps for New Zealand, right back Josh Risdon had appeared for Australia 14 times, centre-back Tomislav Mrcela has had a varied career including spells in Croatia, Uzbekistan, India and South Korea, and midfielder Nicholas Pennington played in Italy’s Serie C for Cagliari and Olbia.
Belgian left-back Anas Hamzaoui had previously played for Tubize, Union St Gilloise and Virton whilst midfielder Brandon O’Neill ( 1 cap ) had played for Sydney FC, Pohang Steelers and Thai side Burinam United.
Western Sydney Wanderers Update
Western Sydney Wanderers had played two matches since their 3-2 victory reported in these diaries at Adelaide United, going down 2-3 at home to Macarthur before playing out a 2-2 draw at Melbourne Victory. Consequently, they had slipped from 6th place to starting today in 8th place, five points adrift of the 6th placed play-off position. Ex-Spanish international Juan Mata had started both of the last two matches, after being a substitute for nearly all of the other matches this season.
Matchday Information
The distance between Perth and Sydney by road is a shade over 4,000 kilometres which usually takes around 60 hours. By air the scheduled time is 4 hours 15 minutes.
Adult tickets for the match ranged between 32.50 to 80 AUD
The weather at the 18.45 local kick-off time ( 10.45 UK time ) was sunny and 22 degrees.
Wanderers made one change from the team that drew at Melbourne Victory with Bozhidar Kraev returning in place of Aydan Hammond, who was on the bench. From the squad that played in Adelaide three weeks ago for WSW, Gabriel Cleur and Dylan Scicluna were now injured, whilst Dean Pelekanos had been suspended and was only on the bench today. Veteran midfielder Josh Brillante was now playing as a makeshift centre-back.
Perth also made one change, handing 19-year-old William Freney his first start in place of Jarrod Carluccio, who was missing from the matchday squad amidst rumours he will be leaving the club in the upcoming transfer window.
Perth were in their usual all purple kit with large fluorescent orange numbers and orange trims, whilst Wanderers were in all white with reddish/brown dotted stripes down the front of the shirt, the same kit they had played in at Adelaide United
The match was live streamed on Bet365.com, who made Wanderers 4/7 favourites, with Perth 15/4 outsiders and the draw at 7/2. The match was also shown on TNT Sports in the UK.
Matchday Report
Wanderers started strongly and with less than two minutes on the clock Zac Sapsford beat two defenders to get into the Perth area but after losing control, the ball was cleared before it could reach Brandon Borello.
Wanderers took the lead a minute later thanks to a terrible own goal. Jack Clisby was free on the left and played a low ball across the six-yard line. Borello stuck out a leg and keeper Sail made a good reaction save from close range. In a piece of pure comedy, Mrcela attempted to clear but slipped and only succeeded in kicking the ball against teammate Adriano Lebib and deflected high into the net. 0-1 after 3 minutes.
Wanderers nearly doubled their lead two minutes when Mata’s corner went through hands of keeper Sail, but Risdon managed to get to the ball and put it off for a corner before Milanovic could bundle the ball over the line.
Wanderers had another great chance in the 10th minute. Borello crossed from the right and as Sail hesitated and stayed routed to his line, Sapsford should have scored from close range at far post but could only head over under pressure from Risdon. Already, it wasn’t hard to see why Perth had the worst defence in the league !
Perth finally had an attack and Bonetig unnecessarily conceded a corner. Taras Gomulka’s delivery bounced across the face of the goal and under pressure, Mrcela could only deflect the ball well wide.
Perth were forced into an early change as Pennington limped off to be replaced by Brandon O’Neill, and the substitute was immediately in the action as a nice move on the edge of the WSW area led to Taggart’s intelligent pass putting O’Neill in space on the left, but his left-footed drive fizzed narrowly wide of the far post.
In the 22nd minute Borello broke past his marker inside the Perth half and passed to Sapsford on left, but the ball into area hit Lebib on the body as the young Perth centre-back slid into block.
Two minutes later a left footed cross from right by Freney went over a crowd of players in the Wanderers area and then hit Borello and rolled harmlessly to keeper Thomas.
A minute later Borello was involved at the other end but his opportunistic first-time effort went well wide, and a minute later a lovely ball from Mata reached Kraev beyond far post who guided the ball across goal, but the diving Borello couldn’t quite reach it and the ball went off for goal kick.
Perth started to enjoy a good spell. First, Freney sliced well wide from 20 yards then Taggart showed persistence and eventually laid the ball off to O’Neill, who fired a ball across the 6-yard line. Clisby mis-kicked his attempted clearance and instead the ball rolled gently back to keeper Thomas. O’Neill then tried his luck from 30 yards, but his effort went straight at Thomas
In the 39th minute, more pressure from Perth led to a free kick inches outside the Wanderers 18 yard line. Jaylan Pearman’s shot had been blocked by Brillante and then Trent Ostler’s back flick hit the arm of Brillante for the free kick. O’Neill tamely put the kick over the bar.
Wanderers finished the half well as Sail made a diving save from Milanovic’s low 20 yard left footed effort, pushing the ball away. WSW reworked possession and Kraev shot yards over.
The first yellow card was shown in added on time as Gomulka brought down Sapsford near halfway.
Wanderers headed to the dressing rooms with a deserved 1 goal lead. However, after an appalling opening 10 minutes by Perth, the rest of the first half was pretty even.
Whatever the Glory coach had said during the interval it seemed to have had the desired effect. Taggart immediately sent a 20-yard drive just over after being set up by Ostler, and then the equaliser arrived. Risdon played a ball in from the right wing and Taggart got ahead of Brillante at the near post to put the ball into the back of the net from 6 yards. 1-1 after 47 minutes
Perth’s tails were up as Ostler sent a 25 yarder at Thomas.
Wanderers though were soon back in the game and after Mata’s corner bounced around in the 6 yard box, Risdon hoofed clear.
Nicolas Milanovic was crowded out inside area after Oscar Priestman’s shot had been blocked, then Sapsford had a shot blocked by Lebib. Moments later, Borello flicked the ball off the head of Mrcela but keeper Sail got down to safely gather.
Perth briefly got into the Wanderers half and a good touch from Taggart found Pearman but his 20-yard low effort was at the keeper, who gathered at the second attempt.
The visitors looked the more likely side to score the next goal, and a lazy clearance in the Perth area smacked into Sapsford but landed in the side netting
Sapsford then ran onto a through ball from Milanovic after a poor goal-kick and keeper Sail recklessly charged off his line in to no-man’s land. Sapsford easily rounded the stranded keeper and put the ball into the empty net despite the despairing dive from Mrcela. Sapsford’s reward was to be Immediately substituted ! However, it was now 1-2 with 59 minutes played
Perth were rocked and a good touch by Borello enabled him to get behind Perth backline but Lebib did well to get back and make the tackle.
In the 64th minute a hopeful lob forward by Pelekanos saw Sail go wandering again and the ball bounced over the Kiwi keeper. However, his blushes were spared by Lebib who took possession but then nearly undid his good work by passing straight to Kraev but the Bulgarian aimlessly played a low cross to no-one in particular.
Perth substitute Joel Anasmo then did well to get past Borello on the left-hand by-line, but the attempted pass was blocked at near post for a corner.
The game came to a halt in the 72nd minutes as the sprinklers came on to water the pitch ! When the game resumed, Perth started to dominate. A nice passing movement involving Pearman, Ostler and Taggart came to nothing as the final pass was delayed, but Zach Lisolajski forced a corner which was played short. Gomulka crossed from left, and with the Wanderers keeper taking his turn to go walkabout, Lisolajski rose the highest but his header went just wide of vacant goal.
Next, a Gomulka cross was put out by Brillante for a corner, which was bravely headed cleared at near post by Bonetig as the boots flew in. With 81 minutes played, a ball into the WSW area was helped on by Ostler, but was blazed just over on the turn by Taggart.
With five minutes left to play a clever back heel from Anthony Pantazopoulos gave Borello a sight of goal but the shot from just inside the area was blasted high and wide. A quick counter saw Borello and Antonsson combine, but from the pull back to Borello just inside the area, the Wanderers forward opted to side-foot but put the ball high by quite some margin. Borello had spurned two great chances in less than a minute, and was substituted.
Five added minutes were shown and the second yellow card of the match was given to Clisby for cynically stopping Perth substitute Faisal as he ran past him midway inside the Perth half. Wanderers comfortably saw out the closing stages with the only hint of danger being a long throw from Risdon, which was well grabbed by keeper Thomas.
Western Sydney Wanderers stayed in 8th place in the A-League table despite the victory, but the gap to 6th place was now down to two points. Perth remained in 12th place.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrcLKlzNhKw
Perth Glory : Sail – Risdon, Lebib, Mrcela, Lisolajski – Ostler ( Faisal ), Pennington ( O’Neill ), Gomulka, Freney ( Anasmo ) – Pearman ( Blair ), Taggart
Western Sydney Wanderers : Thomas – Pantazopoulos, Brillante, Bonetig, Clisby – Kraev ( Bodolato ), Priestman, Mata ( Pelekanos ), Milanovic ( Hammond ) – Borello ( Temelkovski ), Sapsford ( Antonsson )
