A Branko Jelic double has foiled Melbourne’s hopes of securing back-to-back Hyundai A-League victories, with Perth Glory recording its fourth consecutive home win over Victory at Members Equity Stadium with a 2-1 success.
A Branko Jelic double has foiled Melbourne’s hopes of securing back-to-back Hyundai A-League victories, with Perth Glory recording its fourth consecutive home win over Victory at Members Equity Stadium with a 2-1 success.
Jelic netted goals from close range at the beginning of either half with Archie Thompson’s ninth-minute goal not enough to get Melbourne any points from a match it dominated in the first half. Melbourne now has one win, a draw and two losses from the first four weeks of the season.
Melbourne stated its attacking ambitions by naming Ney Fabiano to start as part of a three-man strike force up front, while, as expected, Leigh Broxham stepped in at left back in the place of the injured Evan Berger.
In just the second minute, Melbourne had a chance with a long pass from Broxham headed wide by Rody Vargas. Perth then stunned the visitors with its first attacking foray.
From a fifth-minute free kick, Chris Coyne was able to rise unattended in the box and his header found Mile Sterjovski, who pulled the trigger. The shot trickled through and Jelic was able to toe in from a matter of inches.
Melbourne was stunned into action and after Danny Allsopp fired wide, Carlos Hernandez opened up the Perth defence with a superb angled pass, which found Allsopp on the left. His cross found Thompson, whose first shot was blocked by a desperate Naum Sekulovski. But the rebound fell at the striker’s feet for an easy finish and after nine minutes it was 1-1.
Victor Sikora fluffed a good chance for Perth soon after, while Hernandez took aim from range in the 16th minute, but shot wide. Both of Melbourne’s full backs, Broxham and Surat Sukha were then booked in the space of a minute but that didn’t stop Melbourne pushing forward with Thompson latching on to a flick-on from Ney Fabiano in the 25th minute, but shooting over.
The Brazilian was very busy, playing Hernandez through on 32 minutes, only for the Costa Rican to be denied, before he went himself producing another fine save from Tando Velaphi. Up the other end, Glen Moss did a good job to shut down Adriano Pellegrino and then save from Andy Todd on the stroke of half-time.
Fabiano continued to pose a threat after the break, trying his hand from nearly 30 metres out and just going high and wide. He was then clattered into by Coyne, who was booked, and from the resultant free kick, Hernandez forced a save from Velaphi.
On 54 minutes, the ball then went up the other end, with Scott Neville firing in a cross, Sterjovski heading on goal and Jelic was there to net his second from close range.
Fabiano departed for Nick Ward on the hour, with the substitute immediately testing out Velaphi, but it was a rare second-half chance for the visitors, with the Glory pressing hard to kill off the game.
Sikora, who was causing Victory’s defence all sort of trouble, Pellegrino and Jacob Burns all put chances wide, while Adrian Leijer and Hernandez were both booked for fouls on the Dutchman.
A hobbling Hernandez and Sukha were replaced by Grant Brebner and Matthew Foschini, who made his Victory debut. Perth then put up the shutters in order to secure all three points, meaning Melbourne was forced to shoot from range. Tom Pondeljak, Allsopp and Billy Celeski all tried to test out Velaphi, but they had no success.
Perth Glory 2 (Jelic 4, 54)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Thompson 9)
Friday, August 28, 2009
ME Bank Stadium, Perth
Referee: Chris Beath
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