I have it on good authority that this was the best game at Edensor all season. (Though the same source said Sydney United would "continue to play an utmost important role in this country".)
A sensational hat-trick from a stand-in striker ended United's hopes of making the finals, but the Sydney players battled on with a passion that would have served them well earlier in the season.
Perth Glory, even with several players "rested" and Damian Mori at centre back, were fabulous. And there were flags and flares and lots of goals. But best of all Sydney United played their hearts out.
The flags were a point of contention (yes, so were the flares, but that goes without saying). Two busloads of Glory fans were herded into a fenced off section behind one of the goals. They looked marvellous, the so called "purple p****", each with a glorious Glory flag. But why was the "Shed Army" allowed to have flags when they were forbidden to the United fans?
So outgunned in the banner department, the United Boys and Girls dug to the bottom of their arsenal, bypassing any wit, and resorted to homophobic insults and Croatia chants. The unwelcome United supporters, those with even less wit, tossed in flares from outside the ground.
Sydney United kicked off and Andrew Packer looked good for Perth running the ball forward to Nick Mrdja.
Greg Sharland, getting a chance up front with Bobby Despotovski off and Mori at the back, applied some pressure with a run into the United box and won a corner. The kick was held by Liam Reddy.
In the third minute United signalled that Perth should not be complacent. Mark Beldham had a great chance, breaking into the left of the Perth penalty area, but missed to the right of goal.
Brendan Santalab had a free kick for United 20 metres out in front of the Perth goal. He hit a head in the wall.
Glory fouled again and United had another kick from a similar position but to the left. This time Santalab struck just over the goal.
Mori, meanwhile, was off getting his head bandaged.
Then came the first barrage of flares onto the pitch and the United Boys lost all sense of taste. The crowd was warned that any more flares and the match would be abandoned. Which would be no good for United because they needed three points.
Glory managed to string some snappy passes together.
Adrian Caceres, who had a stunning first half, was twice excellent down the left, but the second time Mark Rudan, who was in doubt before the game, came over to sort him out.
But Caceres was soon at it again, and pulled the ball back for Wayne Srhoj to shoot on target.
David Huxley contributed to a misunderstanding with a ball back towards Rudan. Mrdja had a better look at the ball but Rudan was ever so slick winning it back from him.
Michael Cunico was good against Sharland and Mori defended well against Beldham.
Huxley and Dean Heffernan did well on the left but Beldham overran a pass back for him to shoot.
Santalab dramatically fell under a tackle from Mori but won the free kick nevertheless. Santalab took it and a Labinot Haliti shot was deflected for a corner.
Just as I was admiring Caceres again, Haliti beat him and Caceres whacked Haliti from behind. Yellow card.
In the 28th minute Mrdja took advantage of a poor pass inside from Joe Vrkic who had just done so well dispossessing Sharland. Mrdja's shot had a lethal swerve. It was a great strike. And suddenly Perth were ahead. It wasn't what United needed.
Caceres beat Cunico and Marko Filipovic to get a soft right footed shot on target.
Vrkic was again good dispossessing Sharland. And Cunico made a good tackle on Mrdja.
Anthony Zmire played a good ball down the left for Heffernan who crossed poorly.
Haliti started a good move down the right with Beldham but couldn't return the final one-two.
Huxley, Filipovic and Haliti then did well down then right. Haliti hit a good low cross but two United players failed to connect in front of goal.
In the 36th minute a shot from Zmire skimmed the top of the Glory crossbar.
I had brought to the game some boys from the junior soccer team I coach. They were supposed to be supporting the local side, but some of them had come to see Mori and Despotovski. Our manager, who came with no ethnic or other biases, observed that United were creating good chances and Perth had done "bugger all" on goal.
Sometimes bugger all and Nick Mrdja is all that it takes.
Caceres hit a good ball to Sharland who was easily robbed by Cunico. Jamie Coyne shot into the back of Vrkic.
In the 41st minute Srhoj did a nice shimmy in midfield to beat his marker. Srhoj fed Mrdja in the United box and Mrdja fired home clinically.
Caceres was skilful rounding Filipovic on the left sideline but when he got the ball back in front of goal Filipovic was there to stop him.
On 45 minutes Perth saved a shot off the line following a Huxley cross from the right.
The onfield entertainment continued at half time with some boys from the Shed taking on the United Boys and Girls in a penalty shoot out. United won in the shooting, saving and theatrical celebrations stakes. One Glory fan celebrated with some finesse, but the connoisseurs among my boys said he was supposed to summersault before he went into the roll.
The mood was positive and exuberant. The fans were in fine spirits. And there was a not unrealistic expectation that United could get back into the game.
Two minutes after the restart Heffernan crossed well from the left and Huxley shot on target, calling a good save from Vince Matassa (Jason Petkovic was on the bench).
Mori was good against Beldham and then good against Santalab.
Caceres broke down the left. Sharland was in an offside position but Caceres kept the ball, beat several defenders and then hit a great cross to Sharland who didn't shoot well. It was an easy save for Reddy who very soon had to make a much more difficult save against the ruthless Mrdja.
Santalab seemed to be a good chance running for a ball on the edge of the Glory penalty area but somehow Mori beat him to it.
Heffernan again crossed from the left but Matassa touched over. Santalab's corner was cleared but United kept up the pressure and won another.
In the 52nd minute Santalab got a ball from Zmire on the left and used great skill beating Shaun Murphy. Santalab cracked a shot that took a huge deflection but came down against the left post. Haliti couldn't beat Matassa to the rebound.
Not even luck for United.
In the 57th minute Rudan was fouled by Mrdja. Rudan took a quick, long free kick to Santalab in the Perth penalty area. Santalab chested down, turned and scored Š but the flag was up.
This was when Doumanis replaced Haliti (the Soccer Australia website is wrong).
Cunico worked well with Doumanis down the right but couldn't hold the delivery into the box.
Santalab took on Perth on his own, even though Heffernan had some space to his left. But Santalab succeeded wonderfully, twisting and turning before being felled outside the area. Zmire's kick was woeful, high over the bar.
Franco Parisi came on for Beldham and Perth replaced Sharland with Nick Ward.
Santalab worked hard to create a chance for himself in the Perth penalty area. It didn't fall for him, but it did fall for Parisi who shot high.
Heffernan, again doing well down the left, won a free kick to the left of the Perth penalty area. In the 69th minute Santalab took the kick and, instead of the predictable cross to the far post, swung the ball inside the near post. Wow! He deserved a goal for the effort he was putting in.
But two minutes later Cunico gave away a free kick. Rumour has it that the referee said, as usual, to wait for the whistle, but Brad Hassell took it quickly into the bottom right corner before the United wall had formed. And the goal stood.
United coach Grant Lee said his players made an elementary mistake by not standing by the ball to give themselves time. You'd have thought the young home team would have been demoralised. But they kept on fighting.
Coyne fouled Parisi 20 metres from the Perth goal. The kick went straight into the wall.
Dean Apelgren replaced Jade North. Matthew Bingley remained on the bench while Mori remained in the backline.
In the 78th minute Parisi did some good patient work on the right goal line, setting up Heffernan for a relatively easy shot inside the far post. United were still in the game but they really needed two more goals.
Rudan was lovely mopping up behind Mrdja. Heffernan, trying so hard, was beaten by Ward.
Some flair from Doumanis - the best since the early rounds of this season - on the edge of the Perth area almost got United through.
But Perth, realising they were being outplayed, lifted a level. Both teams looked like they really meant it. It was exciting.
Mrdja cracked another ripper and hit the right post. A simple instruction would have been not to let that guy on the ball within 30 metres of goal. If that instruction was given, no-one listened.
In the 84th minute Santalab hit a beauty of his own, low to the right post and Matassa saved well.
In their desperation Sydney started to give the ball away too easily. Someone played a hospital ball to Huxley that set Mrdja free on goal again. Reddy made a great save.
Glory worked well toward goal again, setting up Mrdja who could only get away a (for him) poor left foot shot just to the right of goal.
Petar Markovic came on for Zmire and Srhoj fouled Doumanis while he was working more magic. It was a long way from goal and the kick went into the wall. Santalab courageously leaped high to make contact with the clearance but fell awkwardly and was stretchered off with a damaged ankle.
Until that point it somehow still seemed possible United could get the goals they needed in the few minutes remaining.
But four minutes into time added on, with Rudan pushed to the front, Mrdja sealed it once and for all with another great strike.
The United fans were clearly pleased with the heroic efforts of so many of their players. But Grant Lee could only see the opportunities missed and, more particularly, the unusual defensive errors that gave Mrdja his opportunities.
Perth coach Mich d'Avray said Mori fancied himself as a defender and it wasn't a joke to play him there (although some heard when he came off to get his head bandaged he complained that it was too hard).
D'Avray said he needed to give Mrdja and Sharland a game, and Caceres another game. He said people said Mrdja had potential, but he had been around a while and it was just unfortunate that he had been almost an understudy to two of the better strikers in the league, so his chances had been limited.
"But tonight I thought his general play was disappointing. But his finishing was fantastic." Top drawer, someone said.
D'Avray said despite all the changes his team was good on paper and contributed to a good game.
Lee said his team did everything really well, according to the game plan, except for the mistakes they had made. The silly mistakes. There were four turning points through the night, he said, and four goals. "I was very disappointed that we worked so hard to create things and we took it to Perth and played very well across the whole 90 minutes. It was just those stupid little things at the wrong time. As you say, Nick didn't have a great game in the whole scheme of 90-minute football, but he did what he had to do at the right time. He hit the ball like a rocket."
He thought in the first 45 minutes there was a lot of creativity and United could have had a number of goals. "It's just a little bit unfortunate when you see some of the young boys out there who have the game at their feet and their work ethic is a little bit questionable when they do have the opportunity." He said if some of the other players had Markovic's and Filipovic's attitude they would be overseas playing football. He said Santalab stepped up and did well but still needed to do more. Of Parisi he said, "Franco's got some great touches, some great attributes, but still goes through the motions."
The flare tossing started up again after the game and the Glory fans corralled behind the goal had their bus driven behind the change rooms so they could walk across the pitch and exit safely.
There was no real danger or animosity, however. If it had not ordained end of the season for United and perhaps the end of an era, everyone would have gone home pleased they'd witnessed such an entertaining match.