Perth Glory rounded off their three-game tour of South Africa in style on Tuesday night, downing ABSA Premiership side Bidvest Wits 2-1 at Mbombela Stadium.
Perth Glory rounded off their three-game tour of South Africa in style on Tuesday night, downing ABSA Premiership side Bidvest Wits 2-1 at Mbombela Stadium.
Dean Heffernan and Billy Mehmet both found the net for Ian Ferguson-s side who played some sparkling football, particularly during the first half-hour.
And although the combined effects of three tough games in a week inevitably took their toll after the break, Ferguson was in a satisfied mood at the final whistle.
“I thought it was a real game of two halves,” Ferguson said.
“We dominated the first 35 minutes, played some good stuff and scored two cracking goals that I was really pleased with.
“We played out nicely from the back and kept the ball well which was another major positive.
“Then in the second-half they put a lot more pressure on us, we made a lot of changes and lost our fluency a bit, but although they had a lot of possession, they hardly penetrated us until right at the end when Danny (Vukovic) made a great save.
“Apart from that I was very happy with the fitness levels we showed bearing in mind we have had these three games in a short space of time.
“It was a big ask and the boys made a great effort.
“I was hoping to get structure, shape and fitness out of this trip and we-ve achieved that.
“With the new players coming in, it was also important to build camaraderie and we-ve done that as well.”
The opening goal arrived on 14 minutes, Josh Risdon overlapping at pace down the right flank to deliver a fine deep cross to the back post where Heffernan supplied an impressive volleyed finish.
And the left-sided utility man was understandably thrilled to have capped his strong showing on this tour with a goal.
“I got a decent connection on the ball after the defender in front of me had missed his header and fortunately it went in,” Heffernan said.
“It seemed to take ages to hit the net, but luckily there was no-one behind it or close to it and in it went.
“It-s always nice to get a goal and I-ve been pleased with how I-ve played overall on this trip.
“I came on as a substitute in the first game and played left midfield and enjoyed it because I have a lot more freedom there, but then in the second game I returned to left back and I-ve always liked playing there as well.
“Then today I was back in midfield and felt confident slotting in there and I thought we really dominated the first 30 minutes or so. A few tough tackles slowed the game down a bit after that, but we expected that and they didn-t really cause us too many problems at the back at any stage.
“In terms of the overall trip, I had always wanted to come to South Africa and I-ve really enjoyed being here.
“It-s been great to get to know the new boys, we-ve trained really hard and had three great hit-outs as well.
“It-s been a big success as far as I-m concerned.”
Glory-s second goal, meanwhile, was a master class in finishing from Mehmet.
Cleverly delaying his run to beat the off-side trap, Glory-s big number four latched onto Scott Jamieson-s through ball and showed a decent turn of pace to elude the pursuing defenders before calmly rounding the ‘keeper and rifling home into the unguarded net.
In response to conceding that second goal, Wits pushed their wide midfielders into more advanced positions and also noticeably cranked up their level of physicality.
A series of niggly fouls and subsequent bouts of push and shove ensued, throwing Glory out of their stride somewhat and the South African side duly grabbed themselves a lifeline just before the break when Nato Ofentse teed up Bafana Bafana striker Ryan Chapman and he beat a helpless Danny Vukovic from close range.
Wits continued to press during the second-half, but despite penning Glory into their own half for lengthy periods, they rarely managed to breach a dogged backline superbly marshalled by Michael Thwaite and Steve Pantelidis.
On the rare occasions when they did get a sight of goal, the men in dark blue found Vukovic in fine form, Glory-s highly-rated ‘keeper producing a spectacular save to keep out a ferocious shot fired in from just inside the box by powerfully-built substitute Calvin Kadi in the dying moments of the game.
At the other end of the field, meanwhile, substitute Ndumba Makeche came close to making the game safe for Glory when he headed a Travis Dodd cross narrowly over the bar before the referee sounded his whistle to bring the curtain down on the West Australians- second victory of a highly-successful tour.
Bidvest Wits: 1(Chapman 41-)
Perth Glory: 2 (Heffernan 14-, Mehmet 29-)
Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Perth Glory line up:1. Danny Vukovic, 19. Josh Risdon, 5. Steve Pantelidis, 23. Michael Thwaite, 21. Scott Jamieson (2. Storm Roux 63-), 11. Adrian Zahra (13. Travis Dodd 46-), 10. Liam Miller (6. Nick Ward 70-), 7. Jacob Burns (15. Brandon O-Neill 46-), 14. Steven McGarry (18. Jesse Makarounas 75-), 9. Dean Heffernan (17. Chris Harold 46-), 4. Billy Mehmet (22. Ndumba Makeche 48-)
Perth Glory-s 2012 pre-season tour of South Africa is proudly sponsored by Kaboko Mining, Okap Ventures, Europcar and managed by prominent South African firm SportUnplugged.
