Perth Glory’s fine start to the NPLWA season continued on Saturday night as the youngsters secured a resounding 5-0 win over Forrestfield United at Wildlife Safari Stadium, Hartfield Park.
An early Joe Knowles goal gave the visitors the lead which they took into the break and they duly overran the hosts in the second half, with efforts from Jake Brimmer, Daniel Stynes, Walter Scott and a second from Knowles helping John Gibson’s side maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign.
Gibson was understandably satisfied with his side’s 90-minute display and notably the maturity they showed when United put them under pressure in the first half.
“Our performance was pretty good,” he said. “I thought we created a lot of opportunities in the front third, but just need to relax and be calm with our final pass or finishing techniques. We always are striving to improve and be better because sometimes we just get a bit over-excited or over-enthusiastic. Forrestfield posed problems for us early, but our only focus is ourselves. There is so much enthusiasm at the moment; we need to harness that energy and slow down at times.
“One of our clear focuses tonight was to keep a clean sheet and we’ve spoken about our objectives for the first four games. We wanted 10 points and we’ve achieved that. We scored some outstanding goals tonight and our lead-up play was good, but we need to maintain that as we’ve got a tough run of games coming up which is going to be a huge test.
“Our entire group is tightly-knit bunch and they are working extremely hard for each other both in attack and defense. They will now recovery, re-focus and look forward to facing a strong ECU Joondalup side next week at home.”
Defender Walter Scott, meanwhile, echoed his coach’s comments about what he felt was a deserved victory.
“Saturday night’s game was a great performance from the team and we executed our game plan very successfully,” he said.
“We were very happy to keep a clean sheet and score some nice goals. Approaching a difficult run of games, which will test us, we are excited with the challenges ahead. The group is working towards a common goal and I think it shows on the pitch with our togetherness.
“I was happy to get on the scoresheet and it’s something I am working to add into my game more regularly, to continue my development, but I might have to improve my goal celebration!”
The grandstand was packed at kick off and Glory made the perfect start by opening the scoring after only seven minutes. The lively Chok Dau made space down the right before slipping in Knowles and the striker made no mistake with a neat finish.
The home side, who are playing in the NPL for the first time, almost hit back moments later when the Glory defence failed to clear its lines and the ball landed at the feet of Hasani Sinclair, but the American striker’s shot crashed off the crossbar and away to safety.
The game then really opened up early in the second half and with Glory starting to dominate, it came as no surprise when Brimmer slammed home his second stunning free kick in as many games.
From there it was one-way traffic and after Callum Timmins twice rattled the crossbar from long-range, Knowles capitalised upon a defensive mix-up to tee up Stynes for number three.
The icing was then put on the cake in injury time, when Knowles added his second, curing home superbly past home ‘keeper Ben Parry from the edge of the penalty area. And moments later Scott made it 5-0, rolling the ball into an empty net after rounding Parry and celebrating with a move from his favorite new video game, ‘Fortnite’, much to the delight of his team mates.
The first-team’s victory completed another clean sweep for Glory with the Under-18s winning 6-0 and the Under-20s 3-1 earlier in the day.
Match Details
Forrestfield United 0
Perth Glory 5 (Knowles 7’, 90+1’, Brimmer 63’, Stynes 68’, Scott 90+3’)
Wildlife Safari Stadium, Hartfield Park
Referee: Stuart Muldoon
Forrestfield United: GK Benjamin PARRY, 2 Tom SOUTHGATE, 4 Mark BARNETT, 5 Scott BARKER, 9 Hasani SINCLAIR, 10 Jordan HART (7 Callum ROBERTS 56’), 11 Liam MERRIGAN, 12 Callum DOBBS (8 Mitchell CROCKER 65’), 16 Thomas JEBB, 17 Jamie DUNCAN, 23 Rhys LOXLEY (14 Ben ROGERS 75’)
Substitutes not used: RGK Blake HENSHAW, 6 Leslie MARI
Perth Glory: GK Jackson LEE, 2 Luca BODNAR (15 Daniel WALSH 90+1’), 3 Walter SCOTT, 4 Riley WARLAND, 5 Ollie ANNIS, 6 Callum TIMMINS (12 Jack LEECH 80’) 7 Chok DAU, 8 Brandon WILSON, 9 Joe KNOWLES, 10 Jake BRIMMER, 11Daniel STYNES (14 Michael DOMFEH 77’)
Substitutes not used: RGK Nicolas SPECA, 13 Bayley BROWN-MONTGOMERY
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