New signing Harry O’Brien bagged two goals against his former club as Perth Glory secured a resounding 7-0 victory over Cockburn City on Sunday afternoon.
New signing Harry O’Brien bagged two goals against his former club as Perth Glory secured a resounding 7-0 victory over Cockburn City on Sunday afternoon.
The 19-year-old only completed his permanent move to Glory from the Cockerels on Thursday and played the first-half for the State Premier League side.
But he donned his new colours in the second-half and found the net twice in the space of nine minutes as the A-League outfit turned on the style.
Fellow-new recruit Sidnei also bagged a brace of goals, as did Ryo Nagai, while Ljubo Milicevic got the ball rolling by heading home the opener with only a minute on the clock.
Sidnei and Nagai also featured prominently in the assists column, but Head Coach Alistair Edwards felt that the scoreline was a little harsh on a valiant Cockburn side.
“7-0 didn-t really reflect the game,” he said, “because Cockburn did really well, played some good football and then put a few youngsters in to get some experience at the end.
“But they caught us on a pretty good day to be fair.
“We’re getting to the stage now where we are starting to fine-tune things and the boys played some really good football.”
Edwards was delighted to see O’Brien given such a fine reception from a crowd of close to 2000 at Dalmatinac Park and was also pleased with the performances of several of his other key men.
“Harry received a standing ovation from the Cockburn faithful,” he said.
“It was his first game since he signed for the club so it was good to see him being appreciated in that way and great for him to mark the occasion by scoring two goals.
“Sidnei came on and scored with almost his first touch and played very, very well, while Steve Pantelidis got a full game under his belt for the first time since his operation and Jack Duncan also got the full 90 minutes in goal.
“For the last half hour or so, we had an incredibly young side out there with Jack Duncan, Josh Risdon, Jack Clisby, Cameron Edwards, Danny De Silva, Brandon O’Neill, Ryan Edwards and Harry O’Brien all aged 21 or under.
“It was a great to see those lads getting some really important game time, we also had Jacob Burns and Ljubo Milicevic playing 45 minutes and it was nice to have Michael Thwaite back with us after his exertions with the Socceroos.”
The Cockburn visit proved every bit as popular as the games hosted earlier in pre-season by Kwinana and Gosnells and Edwards received plenty of positive feedback following the final whistle.
“The young Glory guys were there behind the goal with their drums,” he said, “and they made it a really good atmosphere.
“The locals really appreciated Glory coming down to Cockburn to play and speaking to people after the game, they really enjoyed the quality of the game.
“So it was a really pleasing day in more ways than one.”
Glory will tackle State League opposition again early next month when they visit Macedonia Park to face Stirling on Wednesday 4th September.
Perth Glory Line-Up: Jack Duncan (GK), Josh Risdon, Steve Pantelidis, Ljubo Milicevic (Michael Thwaite 46′), Scott Jamieson (Jack Clisby 70′), Cameron Edwards, Jacob Burns (Brandon O’Neill 46′), Ryan Edwards (Adrian Zahra 77′), Chris Harold (Sidnei 27′), Ndumba Makeche (Harry O’Brien 55′), Ryo Nagai
Scorers: Milicevic 1′, Nagai 20′, 47′ , Sidnei 29′, 59′ , O’Brien 68′, 79′
With thanks to Ante Kovacevic
Gareth Morgan
