At last the Perth Glory fans have savoured a home win, with a 3-1 defeat of reigning Premiers and Champions Melbourne Victory. The home win at Members Equity Stadium in Perth was the first in over 12 months.
Glory started the game with Tando Velaphi back in goals and the attack led by Nikita Rukavytsya and Jamie Harnwell, but were to lose Jamie Downey and Simon Colosimo during the game. Victory were without Kevin Muscat, and it continues to show.
Before Downey went off at half-time with a suspected hamstring injury he had sparked Glory with his lightning raids down the right and intelligent crosses.
Perth looked ready to take the game to Melbourne, and in the 6th minute Leo Bertos played a ball over from the right to Nickolai Topor-Stanley overlapping down the left. 'The hypen' took aim but his shot was well blocked by Michael Theoklitos in the Victory goal, and the rebound which was struck by Rukavytsya was blocked by Rodrigo Vargas.
Archie Thompson did get away from the Perth defence in the 7th minute and took an angled strike that Velaphi blocked - but Glory dominated the first half-hour.
A shot by James Robinson in the 9th minute was cleared by Vargas off the line, but it fell to Jamie Harnwell whose bicycle kick was on target but took a deflection.
In the 18th minute Jimmy Downey surged down the right side and sent an early cross to Harnwell, who has inside the area marked by Steve Pantelidis. Harnwell threw himself forward and got a glancing header that nestled in the left side of the net with Theoklitos grasping. 1-0
Rukavytsya made in two in the 29th when he looked up from the edge of the area on the right and planted a shot past Theoklitos. 2-0
The goal stung Melbourne and they shuffled their formation to try to gain some midfield traction. It paid off in the 37th minute when from a corner by Matthew Kemp the ball was not cleared by Perth and Grant Brebner laid the ball back to an unmarked Adrian Caceres some 30m out. The former Glory man drilled it into the top right hand corner. 2-1
The second half immediatley went Glory's way with a through ball from Simon Colosimo to substitute Jerry Karpeh, who sqbeat two defenders in squaring the ball inside for Rukavytsya to steer past the melbourne keeper 3-1
The rest of the second half was more of a stalemate, with Perth's venom diluted by the hamstring injuries to Downey (subbed at half-time) and Colosimo (subbed 11 minutes later).
Perth had more chances, with James Robinson the main culprit but Melbourne had little to show - rare raids by Allsopp and Thompson their only hope.
The win moves the Glory above Wellington on goal difference and missing the top four looms for Melbourne unless they can find last season's form as from next week.