Despite dominating for long periods, Glory were unable to get the better of Stirling Lions in Saturday’s PS4 National Premier League WA clash, eventually succumbing to a 2-0 defeat at Macedonia Park.
Having been on the front foot for much of the opening period, John Gibson’s side were stung shortly before the break when Hayden Stevens was adjudged to have hauled Alex Tanevski down in the box and handed a red card.
Nick Feely duly produced a superb double save to keep out Milorad Vujacic’s spot-kick and subsequent follow-up effort, but the Glory ‘keeper was powerless to prevent Daniel Micevski from firing the Lions in front moments later.
With Daniel Stynes and Joseph Knowles a constant threat in attack, Glory made light of their numerical inferiority for much of the second half and looked well capable of snatching a deserved point.
Stynes drew an early save from home ‘keeper John Perkins before Bayley Montgomery-Brown just failed to make contact with a fine cross from Yacoub Mustafa.
But they found themselves temporarily reduced to nine men when, with all of their substitutes having been used, Ashwin Jayakumar was forced to leave the field for treatment.
And the hosts took advantage almost immediately, doubling their lead through a rather fortuitous scooped effort from Jason Rubidge on 77 minutes.
Jayakumar did manage to return for the final ten minutes and Glory finished strongly, but as in the first half, were ultimately unable to find a way through a stubborn home defence.
While frustrated at his side’s inability to translate their pressure into goals, however, Gibson praised the character they showed after being reduced to ten men.
“We controlled much of the first half without creating too many clear-cut chances,” he said, “and we let ourselves down a bit in that regard. But credit to Stirling who defended well in a block and looked to hit us on the break.
“The sending off was definitely the turning point and although Nick did brilliantly to save the penalty, we then gave away a silly goal right on the stroke of half-time.
“We had to change things up for the second half and I thought we were very brave in the way we played.
“We dealt with their counter-attacks and kept the ball well even if we didn’t really manage to penetrate.
“Their second goal was a weird one that came against the run of play, but credit to the boys, they kept endeavouring to get something out of the game right to the end.”
Earlier in the day, meanwhile, Glory’s Under-18s won 3-2, while the Under-20s were beaten 4-1.
All three teams return to action on Saturday when they host Mandurah City at Ashfield Reserve, with the games starting at 11am, 1pm and 3pm respectively.
Stirling Lions 2 (Micevski 45 + 2’, Rubidge 77’)
Perth Glory 0
Saturday July 8, 2017
Macedonia Park
Kick off: 3pm
Referee: Matthew Southern
Assistant Referees: Daniel Cole, Mitchell Barrington
Perth Glory: 1. Nicholas FEELY (GK), 2. Luca BODNAR, 3. Hayden STEVENS, 4. Cameron MURRAY, 5. Walter SCOTT, 6. Jack LEECH (15. Ashwin JAYAKUMAR 46’), 7. Bayley BROWN-MONTGOMERY (13. Gomo DUKULY 67’), 8. Callum TIMMINS, 9. Joseph KNOWLES (12. Michael McDOUGALL 63’), 10. Daniel STYNES (C), 11. Yacoub MUSTAFA
Substitutes not used: 20. Kyle McDONALD (RGK),14. Michael DOMFEH
Yellow Cards: Timmins 56’
Red Cards: Stevens 42’
Stirling Lions: 1. John PERKINS (GK) (20. Lance ALAVAKIS 84’ (RGK)), 2. Michael PUGLIESE, 5. Nicholas ASHLEY, 7. Milorad VUJACIC (C)(6. Robbie MCNEILL 84’), 8. Alex SULESKI, 9. Alex TANEVSKI, 10. Daniel MICEVSKI, 15. Shane CASSIDY,17. Darren O’RIORDAN, 18. Moses KALAU (12. Jason RUBIDGE 62’),19. Cameron TEECE
Substitutes not used:13. Adam FALCONE,16. Mathaing MATHIANG
Yellow cards: Nil
