They came out in force to watch Dwight Yorke and the big man turned out to be the match winner for Sydney FC.
Perth Glory's biggest crowd of the season, 13,157, witnessed an entertaining match but, unfortunately for the vast majority, a poor result, as Sydney FC came from behind to beat the locals.
This defeat for Glory is sure to increase the pressure on coach Steve McMahon, especially in the light of some decisions made over substitution in the match.
The main concern was the withdrawing of the Glory man of the match Hiro Ishida and Naum Sekulovski, thereby removing all width from the Glory attack. They were replaced by Damian Mori and Nick Ward, during a set play for Sydney on the edge of the Glory area. Thankfully for the coach the set play came to nothing, but the overall effect of the changes was to cramp the Glory style and for the 2nd time this season, showed that three men up front will not work for Glory.
In the ensuing 30 minutes, Glory created just one clear opportunity and that was in the second minute of added time.
It could all have been so different, as the home side more than held their own in the first half and went into the half time break ahead, thanks to a superbly headed goal by Despotovski.
The first half was a very interesting affair with both sides, just like boxers, sounding each other out. There were few clear chances before the Glory goal on 41 minutes, when following good work on the right by Ishida, he played the ball into the path of Jamie Coyne, whose first time cross was met with perfect timing, in the air, by Despotovski to give Bolton absolutely no chance.
Glory should have gone in two up at the break as in the second minute of added time in the first half a long clearance (what else) by Petkovic was headed on by Despotovski into the path of Deane, but the big striker was off balance as he fired the ball high over the bar.
This was to prove a costly miss for Glory as within three minutes of the restart, referee Matthew Breeze somehow pulled a free kick out of an innocent situation on the Glory by-line. The free was crossed in by Carney, and the Glory defence made a complete hash of clearing as the ball fell to Petrovski inside the six metre box and he gleefully despatched the ball to the net with Petkovic rooted to his line.
In the 60th minute McMahon made his substitutions and within five minutes Sydney were in front. Once more it was a controversial decision, this time a throw in, that should have gone to Glory, but instead was awarded to Sydney. Packer threw it long into the Glory area when Petrovski flicked the ball on to an unmarked Yorke who powered a shot that although Petkovic got to, could not prevent it from entering the net.
For the remainder of the match Glory failed to create any clear cut opportunities until the second minute of added time when Caceras played a ball to Ward on the right, he turned and split the Sydney defence with a great pass to the inrushing Celeski, but the young gun fired over from 12 metres.
However Sydney should have put the game beyond doubt just 1 minute before Celeski's miss as Corica was sent through on goal by a great pass from Yorke but he like Deane and Celeski for Glory fired over the bar.
So Glory slump to their third defeat out of four home matches and, as I said at the beginning, the pressure must be growing on the coach, who continues to come up with excused post match. This time it was the poor refereeing decision he has blamed, although to be fair to him he did admit the defending was shocking. As Pierre Littbarski stated, the referee did not score the goals.
Next week sees the start of a very difficult away double for Glory with a trip to Newcastle, to be closely followed the following week by another daunting trip to the Central Coast. If Glory fail to get points on the road one wonders what the club will do with the coach.
For Sydney, things are looking much better as they sit in second spot and have a home game against leaders Adelaide next weekend.