It’s January 2010.
Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’is topping the ARIA singles charts, great swathes of central Queensland are hit by flooding, Chanel roll out a bizarre ‘Yeti’ fashion collection that even Eugene Dadi doesn’t buy into and Jessica Watson is busy sailing her (solo) way around the world.
But enough of that; what about Glory?
Well, there are four games of the regular season left and the men in purple are in the midst of a three-way dogfight for two finals places.
Dave Mitchell’s side need a boost to get them over the line and out of the blue, a striker becomes available on a short-term deal.
He signs, duly rattles in a remarkable five goals and for the first time in their Hyundai A-League history, Glory reach the finals.
The striker in question? Daniel McBreen and if Marvel ever create a new superhero called Impact Man, we’re putting him forward to play the part.
His move to Glory was a strange and convoluted one.
The Burnley-born frontman had been on the books of the now-defunct North Queensland Fury, but midway through the season, had agreed to sign for Central Coast.
For reasons best known to themselves, Fury allowed him to leave immediately and with his Mariners deal not set to kick in until the current campaign was over, Glory were able to snap him up in the interim.
McBreen didn’t score on his debut off the bench in a forgettable 6-2 shellacking away at Melbourne Victory, but three days later he did find the net to complete a come-from-behind, 3-2 win at Adelaide.
His second goal in Glory colours arrived in the subsequent home victory over Wellington and he followed that with a brace, ironically against the Mariners, in Round 25.
The hard-working striker’s late effort could not prevent Glory from slipping to defeat at Sydney FC a week later, but by then, a maiden finals berth was in the bag.
And although the WA side were destined to fall at the first hurdle in a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat against Wellington, McBreen added a successful spot-kick at Westpac Stadium just for good measure.
Those are the impressive bare facts of McBreen’s time with Glory, but as ever, we’d love to get your memories and thoughts, so please join the conversation on our Facebook page HERE, or via Twitter HERE.
#OneGlory
