If last Saturday night was a champagne the tonight would be regarded as light beer in a plastic glass, as Glory struggled to a 3 - 2 victory against a very spirited Northern Spirit.
The visitors became the first team to score from open play at the new Glory home and in fact did it twice with 2 well taken goals. However Glory keeper Petkovic will not be happy with the parts he played in both goals, firstly flapping at a corner and then trying to take on a Spirit forward and being caught out.
However it all started differently as the Glory poured on the pressure from the start. After only 2 minutes good interchange between Byrnes and Mrdja on the left wing finished with the latter laying the ball back to Bingley whose long range shot was comfortably saved by Henderson.
The Spirit custodian was called into action just 1 minute later this time following an interchange between Mrdja and Despotovski before a lay back by Faria was well hit by Pondeljak, but the big man again held onto the ball well.
Spirit then showed that they were not just here to make up the numbers after 5 minutes when the excellent Richter made a dashing run before firing across goal only to see Coyne coolly clear the danger.
In the 9th minute a determined run by Byrne finished with him winning a corner and the resultant kick was met well by Murphy at the near post and despite the great efforts of the Spirit defenders managed to squirm its way into the net and give Glory the lead.
At the 20 minute mark a good move involving Pondeljak and Faria finished with Bingley finding space for a shot but it went narrowly wide.
At this stage Spirit were depending on the long ball from defence and in the 25th minute one such ball found Richter on the left and he cut in before firing a great drive that was brilliantly tipped away for a corner by Petkovic. The resultant corner was for some reason flapped away by Petkovic when it looked easier to catch and following the throw in the ball was half cleared to Richter who from 20 meters out hit a great low shot into the bottom left side of the net with Petkovic clutching at air, for the equaliser.
Glory nearly regained the lead in the 33rd with another Despotovski corner finding Murphy's head this time at the far post but his downward header was off line this time.
However Glory did eventually regain the lead in the 43rd minute with a classic counter attacking goal, as Byrnes broke up a Spirit attack at his own penalty area, played the ball to Hassell further up field on the left. He carried the ball before playing a defence splitting pass to the sprinting Pondeljak who took the ball in his stride, raced into the penalty area and shot into the net despite a great effort to save by Henderson. Glory ahead 2-1.
It should have been 3-1 just a minute later when Faria with a great run was able to set up Hassell with a one on one with the keeper, but this time Henderson proved the victor as he saved well.
The 2nd half was only 2 minutes old when Byrnes made great ground down the left before crossing the ball, which was well headed by the fast moving Mrdja but again Henderson saved.
In the 54th minute Byrnes showed great vision with a quick diagonal free kick that found Faria, he played the ball square and Despotovski dummied to allow Pondeljak to shoot well from 20 meters, but once more Henderson got down to save at the 2nd attempt.
Five minutes later it was Spirit who had the chance as Richter found Ferguson with a great ball and with only Petkovic to beat the big striker fired wide from inside the box.
In the 61st minute a great ball from Pondeljak found Faria on the edge of the box, he returned the ball to Pondeljak who as he tried to shoot had the ball scrambled clear but only to Mrdja at the edge of the box but his hard and low shot flew wide of the post.
There then followed over 20 minutes of stalemate, with many in the 7996 crowd starting a chant for out of favour Glory Striker to be introduced by coach d'Avray. However the coach decided to first bring on Caceres for Faria after 64 minutes. The substitution had little or no effect as the game headed towards a boring conclusion. Eventually with only 9 minutes remaining the coach brought on the striker for Mrdja and his 400th NSL appearance was greeted with an enormous roar from the crowd. It was as though the crowd were making their stand on the dispute between the Champion striker and the Championship winning coach.
Immediately the game sparked into life and with just 5 minutes remaining a superb long ball from Byrnes played Despotovski into the Spirit half and with Mori in support he raced into the penalty before easily beating Henderson to make it 3-1 to Glory.
That should have been it but 2 strange things contrived to make the final minutes interesting to say the least. The first was a free kick awarded to Glory just 25 meters out and on the left wing. With all the fans expecting a cross into the penalty area towards the waiting Mori, Despotovski for some inexplicable reason played a 50 meter back pass to his keeper much to the crowds and Mori's disgust.
This strange decision was nearly a very costly one as in injury time, Petkovic came outside his box to clear a ball, however he then tried to beat Richter, which failed and following an attempted shot that was blocked the ball eventually arrived at Tomasevic just inside the penalty area and he proceeded to blast the ball home and make the final score 3-2.
To say this was a disappointing Glory display would be an understatement but it must be remembered that even though they were not impressive they have still managed to open an 8 point gap at the top of the league.