Perth Glory have moved to the top of the National Youth League table after beating previous leaders Melbourne Heart 3-0 at 6PR Stadium on Sunday.
Perth Glory have moved to the top of the National Youth League table after beating previous leaders Melbourne Heart 3-0 at 6PR Stadium on Sunday.
Adam Taggart put the hosts ahead in the 28th minute before Clayton Arnez scored shortly after half-time and Jesse Makarounas slotted home the third in the 92nd minute to hand Melbourne just their third loss of the season.
Victory in the top-of-the-table clash saw the Glory leapfrog the Heart into first place, establishing a two-point gap over John Aloisi’s side ahead of the Christmas break.
Melbourne, who finished with 10 men when Bradley Treloar received a straight red card in the 86th minute, hit the woodwork and created several chances throughout the game but couldn’t capitalise, allowing Perth to record their sixth win from nine games this season.
An error from Lewis Italiano nearly allowed the visitors to take the lead just six minutes in as the Glory keeper could only parry a long-range shot into the path of Billy Liolios, whose effort was deflected into the side netting.
But Italiano made up for it with a brilliant save to deny Stipo Andrijasevic’s close-range header and then pulled off another spectacular stop to deny David Williams two minutes later.
Even though the visitors had most of the early chances, Perth took the lead when Joshua Risdon played through Taggart and the striker calmly slotted the ball past Nikola Roganovic.
Tommy Amphlett was unlucky not to double the Glory’s lead when his shot from a tough angle cannoned off the far post shortly before the interval.
It took the Heart just 10 seconds after the break to create a golden opportunity when half-time substitute Zac Walker was played through but his shot was cleared off the line.
But Arnez doubled the home side’s advantage in the 59th minute when the stand-in captain was allowed too much space off a corner and finished with an impressive header.
Melbourne enjoyed the bulk of the attacking play over the final 30 minutes and created several chances.
But any chance of an unlikely comeback ended when Treloar tackled Glory substitute Alex Canglia to the ground and was given his marching orders in the final minutes.
Perth then scored their third when Makarounas arrived unmarked and slotted in an inviting cross from close-range.
