The sight of Damian Mori scoring goals at Hindmarsh Stadium has been a very familiar sight for Adelaidians for over a decade. Adelaide fans know all too well that Mori is a prolific goal scorer and are very disappointed to watch the Adelaide based striker turning up at Hindmarsh Stadium in an opposition shirt. The old NSL may be dead and buried but some of the old rivalries and politics still live on in Adelaide and unfortunately this has prevented Mori from playing for his local A-League club.
With Adelaide unable to obtain a release of Mori from his local team, Adelaide City, United headed offshore and recruited strikers Qu from China and Rech from Brazil. The Qu-Rech strike partnership is starting to show promising signs of developing into one of the more potent strike forces in the A-League.
It was Rech who was in the action from the kick-off working hard out wide before crossing the ball into the Glory area. Miller cleared the ball to safety - corner for Adelaide.
Next it was Qu's turn as he took the corner which McMahon cleared - another corner to Adelaide. This time Qu stayed in the Glory area, got on the end of the corner and headed the ball down to Adelaide's Rees. Centre half Rees swivelled on the ball and clipped his shot into the base of the post from only 5 yards. Glory were already under pressure with only a minute on the clock.
In the 5th minute it was Colosimo's turn to get in the action when he found himself in some space outside the box. He let fly with a 30 metre drive that went well wide.
A minute later and the action was back in the Glory penalty area. Aloisi chipped in a free kick that was headed dangerously across the Glory penalty area but there was no Adelaide plan on hand to poke the ball home.
In the 9th minute Glory pushed forward through Mori who was tackled. The ball fell to Celeski who spread the ball wide to the un-marked Despotovski. Despotovski almost cheekily curled the ball with the outside of his boot into Adelaide's back post were the onrushing Mori smashed the ball into the roof of the net from less than one metre out. 1-0 to Glory. It was very poor defending by Adelaide with centre backs Valkanis and Rees caught ball watching.
Adelaide fought back almost immediately. Midfielder Costanzo settles on the ball, beats a player before knocking his pass to the feet of Rech. The Brazilian runs half the pitch, players a clever 1-2 with Qu on the edge of the box before he is clumsily brought down by McMahon inside the box. Penalty to Adelaide.
Carl Veart stepped up and drove the penalty home to level the scores in the 13th minute.
Adelaide pushed on in search of a second. In the 16minute an Adelaide corner was cleared by Glory but only as far as Aloisi on the edge of the box. He smashed his shot over the bar from 20m out. Next it was Veart who go on the end of a cross from Travis Dodd but his header flew harmlessly over the bar.
Five minutes later Adelaide unconvincingly cleared a high ball and Ward almost capitalised. His shot from the edge of the area forced goalkeeper Beltrame into a good save.
Another Adelaide corner, a punched clearance from Petkovic only as far as Aloisi and he hit his second shot over the bar. A minute later Aloisi crosses the ball from out wide and Horsley slices his clearance over the cross bar for yet another Adelaide corner. There was no third corner lucky for Aloisi as this time Petkovic punches the ball out for a throw-in.
Adelaide were having the better of the game with Glory pushed back into their own half. In the 26th minute Rech setup Qu down the flank, Qu smashed a low and hard cross but Petkovic intercepted at his front post only to spill the ball and Glory desperately cleared the danger.
Glory grabbed their second goal in almost comical circumstances in the 34th minute. Beltrame came out to intercept a long ball. As he was about to grab the ball he found himself just outside his box. For reasons only known to Beltrame he clipped the ball into the path of the onrushing Mori rather than smash the ball over the sideline. The quick reacting Mori instinctively side footed the ball past the stranded Beltrame and into the empty Adelaide goal - 2-1 to Glory.
In the 36th minute Perth's Ward laid off the ball and took off past Adelaide's VanDommele. The young defender clumsily body checked Ward but came off second best with blood streaming from a cut above his eye. Adelaide were forced into an early change.
From the resulting free-kick, Glory played the ball short into the box. Aloisi tugged on the shirt of Celeski and gave the referee no option but to award Glory an easy penalty. Despotovski stepped up and sent Beltrame the wrong way - 3-1 to Glory.
Glory effectively sealed the result with the fourth goal in the final minute of the first half. Adelaide's Veart gave the ball away cheaply in the midfield, Mori intercepted and laid the ball off to team mate Ward. Ward knocked the ball out wide to Sekulovski who had metres of space on the far side of the box. Sekulovski crossed the ball into Mori who volleyed the ball past Beltrame from only 5 metres. It was yet another Hindmarsh hat trick for Mori. It was also more poor defending from Adelaide with the five red shits surrounding Mori all caught ball watching.
Glory went into the half time break with a match winning 4-1 lead.
Adelaide came out strongly in the second half and quickly had Glory under pressure. Five minutes into the half and Adelaide won five corners in a row before Glory could scramble the ball out for a throw in. But the throw-in was headed on into the box and Glory failed to clear the ball before Rees smashed the ball home from 3 metres out - the score line was now 4-2 and Adelaide had an outside glimmer of hope.
The rain had started at half time and was getting progressively heavier. Before long it was a downpour and the drenched crowd quickly exited Hindmarsh - the 10,000 plus attendance was now down to something closer to the few thousand seats that were undercover in the main stand.
In the 60th minute Lucas Pantelis came on for captain Aloisi and breathed some life into Adelaide. Almost immediately he broke clear out wide and crossed the ball in to the front post. Unfortunately the ball was just behind Dodd who could not turn the ball goal wards - cleared for another Adelaide corner.
In the 68th minute Dodd fired in a shot from the edge of the area but Petkovic turned the ball around the post for another corner. The corner count was 16 for Adelaide and three for Perth.
In the 79th minute Qu lined up a free kick from wide of the box and his effort flew just over the bar. Five minutes later Carl Veart smashed a shot from 30m that had Petkovic beaten and clipped the outside of the goalpost.
Perth Glory weathered the storm in the closing minutes to grab a vital three points that keeps them in touch with the A-League leaders. Coach McMahon will be very pleased with the result particularly given the injury problems that have left him with a bare minimum of fit players.
Adelaide coach Kosmina was unhappy with the result and angry about the injury to young VanDommele. However the television replay cleared showed the injury to VanDommele was an unfortunate accident.
Glory cannot lay claim to having outplayed Adelaide. Rather Glory defended solidly and took great advantage of some very poor defending by Adelaide.
There was one Adelaide fan in the stands who made a call to one of his local club team-mates and jokingly suggested he had better get down to Hindmarsh quickly with his boots as Adelaide coach John Kosmina was asking for him. This experienced player and highly regarded player had marked Mori twice during the local Premier League season and could do little to prevent Mori banging in seven goals in those two games. Mori is a proven goal scoring machine who is near impossible to mark out of the game. On Sunday night at 35 years of age he once again rammed home this message at Adelaide's expense.
Amongst the best for Adelaide was Rech, Costanzo and Qu. Best for Perth was Mori, Petkovic and Ward.