Brandon Wilson’s first A-League goal was not enough to prevent Glory’s Finals charge coming up short as they went down to a 2-1 defeat against Brisbane Roar at Moreton Daily Stadium on Wednesday evening.
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Requiring three points to stay in the mix for a top-six finish, the visitors found themselves with a mountain to climb after an own-goal from the luckless Jonathan Aspropotamitis handed Roar the lead early in the second half and Riku Danazki then made it 2-0 with a goal on the break.
And although midfielder Wilson halved the arrears five minutes from time, the goal came too late for Glory to resurrect their hopes of securing a third consecutive appearance in the Finals.
While naturally unhappy with the result, Head Coach Richard Garcia was quick to hail the resilience that his charges have shown over the course of what has been an extremely challenging campaign.
“Obviously it’s disappointing,” he said, “but I’m proud of the way the guys have reacted in the last few months, their mentality to get themselves back in it.
“They’ve shown big glimpses of a quality side and that’s something we’ve built towards.
“You’ve got a dressing room there full of guys that are gutted it didn’t go our way tonight.
“I thought the performance was decent and they kept going all the way even to the final whistle and never gave up and those are attributes that are good signs for the coming season.
“I thought we had chances to win the game and it was just unfortunate that we copped two goals.”
In a first-half that was littered with chances at either end, Bruno Fornaroli went close with a 20m effort for Glory within the opening 40 seconds, before Jay O’Shea wasted a fine opportunity at the other end when he sent a free header straight at Liam Reddy.
Glory’s next chance also fell to Fornaroli who saw his goalbound effort blocked on the line by Scott Neville and moments later Diego Castro went close, placing a shot narrowly off target after fine approach work featuring Andy Keogh who was setting a new club A-League appearances record by playing his 144th game in purple.
And the striker almost marked the milestone in style six minutes before the break, but Jamie Young in the Roar goal blocked his close-range strike.
Dylan Wenzel-Halls could and should have sent Brisbane into half-time with their noses in front, somehow contriving to head a fine cross from Neville over the bar, but the Queenslanders did break the deadlock five minutes after the restart, aided by a dash of good fortune.
Josh Brindell-South did well to force himself into a crossing position wide on the right and when he delivered a low ball into the box, Aspropotamitis’ attempted clearance found its way past Liam Reddy and into the net.
With their Finals hopes hanging by a thread, Glory upped the ante and threw bodies forward only to be hit with a sucker-punch 17 minutes from time.
Substitute Alex Parsons threaded an inch-perfect ball into the path of Danzaki as Roar broke from inside their own box and despite the close attentions of Darryl Lachman, the Japanese import was able to squeeze home his ninth goal of the season.
To their credit, the men in white kept going right until the death and earned a late consolation when the home defence failed to clear a Castro corner and Wilson pounced to rifle home through a packed box.
Match Details
Brisbane Roar FC 2 (Aspropotamitis o.g. 51′, Danzaki 73′) Perth Glory 1 (Wilson 85′)
Half-time: 0-0
Moreton Daily Stadium (Redcliffe)
Referee: Chris Beath
Brisbane Roar FC: 21.Jamie YOUNG (gk), 2.Scott NEVILLE, 3.Corey BROWN, 10.Riku DANZAKI (15.Jesse DALEY 85′), 11.Joe CHAMPNESS (34.Alex PARSONS 70′), 16.Joshua BRINDELL-SOUTH, 23.Dylan WENZEL-HALLS (9.Masato KUDO 90+3′), 25.Rahmat AKBARI, 26.Jay O’SHEA, 27.Kai TREWIN, 29.Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS
Substitutes not used: 1.Macklin FREKE (gk), 22.Antonee BURKE-GILROY, 35.Hassan RAMAZANI, 37.Cyrus DEHMIE
Yellow Cards: O’Shea, Akbari
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (gk), 2.Jason GERIA, 5.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS (15.Brandon WILSON 63′), 8.Kosuke OTA (20.Carlo ARMIENTO 59′), 9.Bruno FORNAROLI, 10.Andy KEOGH (24.Daniel STYNES 78′), 11.Joel CHIANESE, 13.Luke BODNAR, 17.Diego CASTRO, 18.Nick D’AGOSTINO, 19.Callum TIMMINS, , 29.Darryl LACHMAN
Substitutes not used: 1.Tando VELAPHI (gk), 6.Osama MALIK, 22.Josh RAWLINS, 23.Dane INGHAM
Yellow Cards: Fornaroli
Red Cards: None
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