A depleted Perth Glory FC has extended its unbeaten run against Melbourne Victory to seven matches after earning a valuable point on the road in a gritty 1-1 draw at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Andy Keogh’s historic opening goal and Brandon Wilson’s goal-line heroics helped secure a point in front of 16,017 football fans.
The first-half saw Glory’s defence hold firm against a determined Victory outfit despite a number of key players missing, with Liam Reddy on hand to quash a number of dangerous moments.
Irish marksman, Andy Keogh, continued his excellent form breaking the deadlock at the 17th-minute mark, following a sublime cutback from Chris Harold. The strike was Keogh’s seventh for the season and his 29th for the club, eclipsing former striker Shane Smeltz as the club’s top A-League era goal scorer.
The hosts spurred on by Keogh’s fantastic finish, desperately searched for an equaliser, which came just minutes from the major break courtesy of Besart Berisha.
With the scores locked at 1-1, the second stanza began in contrasting fashion to the first, with both sides frantically looking to gain the lead.
Despite a string of golden chances mainly for the home team, the deadlock was unable to be broken, with Glory’s desperation winning a point away from home.
Glory returns to nib Stadium next weekend to face the Newcastle Jets in what will be the first of two consecutive home games before Christmas.
During the match the recent inductees of the WA Football Hall of Fame will be honoured and former Glory coach Bernd Stange will attend the match before he heads back to Europe to take part in pre-game and post-game celebrations.
Key Moments:
First Half
9’ Besart Berisha’s tap-in to an empty net was disallowed after Marco Rojas was judged offside before setting up the Albanian striker.
17’ Keogh rifles home a strike past Lawrence Thomas from the edge of the area following Harold’s sublime cutback.
28’ Besart Berisha’s neat through ball to Marco Rojas puts the Kiwi in one-on-one, but Liam Reddy acts swiftly to sweep away the danger.
34’ Rojas was at it again moments later, as his curling left-footed strike destined for the bottom corner was superbly turned onto the post and out by Liam Reddy.
41’ Berisha smashes home a close-range volley to restore parity following a Rojas cross.
Second Half
49’ Ben Khalfallah pounces on a loose ball, but his curling effort sails narrowly wide of the Glory goal.
54’ A tidy first-time ball across the face of the goal is met by Ben Khalfallah, but the Tunisian international’s lunge was not enough, as the ball rolled harmlessly wide of the mark.
57′ Spanish centre-half Alan Baro’s moving strike 25 metres forces Reddy to smartly turn over the bar.
69′ Youngster Brandon Wilson scoops a ball away off the line as Ben Khalfallah almost grabbed the lead for Victory.
69′ A pin-point cross from Oliver Bozanic finds Berisha unmarked in the box, but the striker heads high.
79′ Substitute Jai Ingham’s volley from six yards goes just wide of the mark.
90+1′ James Troisi’s cross is met by Ingham, but his first-time volley goes wide from just outside the six-yard area.
90+3 Troisi’s acrobatic volley strikes Reddy’s left post and is cleared by the Glory defence.
MATCH DETAILSÂ
MELBOURNE VICTORYÂ 1 (Berisha 41′)
PERTH GLORYÂ 1 (Keogh 17′)
Round 9:Â AAMI Park
Attendance:Â 16, 017
Referee:Â Wilson Brown
SQUADS
Perth Glory FC : 4. Shane LOWRY, 6. Dino DJULBIC, 8. Rostyn Griffiths, 9. Andy KEOGH 10. Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 14. Chris HAROLD (22. Adam TAGGART 79’), 15. Brandon WILSON (18. Mitch Oxborrow, 16. Joseph MILLS (3. Marc WARREN 29′), 23. Kosta PETRATOS, 24. Milan SMILJANIC, 33. Liam REDDY (GK)
Subs not used: 13. Nicholas FEELY (GK), 24. Jamal REINERS
Coach: Kenny Lowe
Yellow Cards: WILSON 39’, 45+ MARINKOVIC, HAROLD 47’, SMILJANIC 59’
Red Cards: Nil
Melbourne Victory : 2. Jason GERIA 6. Leigh BROXHAM, 7. Marco ROJAS (9. Max BEISTER 88’), 8. Besart BERISHA, 10. James TROISI, 13. Oliver BOZANIC (16. Rashid Mahazi 73’), 14, Fahid BEN KHALFALLAH (23. Jai INGHAM 76’), 15. Alan BARO, 17. James DONACHIE, 20. Lawrence Thomas (GK), 21. Carl VALERIE
Subs not used: 5. Daniel GEORGIEVSKI, 40. Matt ACTON (GK)
Coach: Kevin Muscat
Yellow Cards: BEN KHALFALLAH 72’
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