Perth Glory were able to overcome the worst week in the club’s history with a 3-1 victory over a ten-man Melbourne City at nib Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Jamie Maclaren was the name on everyone’s lips after a sublime hat-trick, capitalising on Chris Beath’s decision to show Paulo Retre a red card following two mistimed tackles inside ninety seconds before the break. Aaron Mooy scored Melbourne’s only goal from a free kick, beating Danny Vukovic who was otherwise outstanding on the day.
Perth Glory
Danny Vukovic: 9 – Made several excellent saves in the first-half, most notably one from a Harry Novillo strike through a cluster of bodies. That form continued in after the interval and Vukovic single-handedly kept Perth alive.
Joshua Risdon: 7 – Made two clearances inside the danger area with his back to the play, ultimately goal savers. Went close to scoring another screamer and held his own against an electric Novillo.
Dino Djulbic: 7 – Struggled to deal with the dancing feet and pace of City’s striker but still denied the Melburnians with some heroic blocks. The centre-back also found himself in some great attacking positions and forced Velaphi into a smart save, blazing over the cross bar in the second stanza.
Michael Thwaite: 6 – Got caught one-on-one with Novillo a couple of times, but managed to force him wide and disrupt his momentum before winning possession back for the Glory.
Denis Kramar: 7 – Had the difficult role of filling in for Scott Jamieson, however, the natural centre-back was solid in defence and showed off his crossing ability with a couple of delightful deliveries to Andy Keogh and Jamie Maclaren as though Jamieson was still present.
Diogo Ferreira: 5 – Got a rare opportunity in the starting XI off the back of a poor run of injuries and his passing was adequate inside twenty yards, although anything beyond that lacked attitude to cause Melbourne any issues.
Richard Garcia: 5 – The Perth midfielder was a workhorse, having run box-to-box consistently over the ninety and on the front foot Garcia was the link up player but lacked the final product when he was the last link. Unfortunately, his second-half got off to a bad start as he lost track of Novillo and fouled the Melbourne attacker, the resulting free kick found its way past the resilient Vukovic off the boot of Mooy to level the scores.
Mitchell Oxborrow: 5- In his first start for Perth you would expect a type of shyness and we definitely saw that as Oxborrow barely trundled forward and stayed resolute in the defensive-midfield spot. From there he was trustworthy in possession, continually organising the build-up and consistently retaining the ball under pressure or defusing pressurised situations.
Jamie Maclaren: 9 – Busy as always in the final third and his willingness to run in behind was rewarded by Daniel De Silva who sent him through on goal, the Glory forward provided a clinically finish low to Tando Velaphi’s left. The pair combined later for the second and Maclaren busted his gut to get into a position to find the net and return Perth to the lead. That industry was repeated in his third goal as he worked hard to get onto the end of Harold’s cross.
Daniel De Silva: 7 – Produced a string of good touches and passes to match, however, his most influential contribution was his clip over the City back line into the path of Maclaren for the opening goal. De Silva was close to resurrecting Perth’s lead through pure hunger, but his attempts were denied by Velaphi, although it resulted in Maclaren profiting from the scraps.
Andy Keogh: 5 – Was missing in action for the most part, failing to find the scoresheet or provide any real attacking threat other than some telepathic link up with Maclaren.
Substitutions
Dragan Paljic: 4 – Was introduced to offer some attacking flair to Perth’s midfield but nothing really changed in that department following their second goal.
Chris Harold: 6 – A late substitution but got himself an assist with a well placed cross for Maclaren’s third.
Riley Woodcock: N/A
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Melbourne City
Tando Velaphi: 6 – Had his feet up during the first-half but sprung out of his slumber to prevent another cracker from Joshua Risdon with a world class save to his right. That save was matched after Melbourne went down a man with a low driven shot from Dino Djulbic which was expertly tipped around the near post.
Paulo Retre: 4 – Perhaps the Steven Gerrard that played Manchester United some weeks ago, was invisible for the majority of the first-half until the ninety seconds prior to the interval where he committed two clumsy fouls and was shown a red card by Chris Beath, although the challenges were soft and the ruling seemed to be an overreaction.
Conor Chapman: 5 – Continued his good form with some well timed tackles and interceptions, however, his job was made difficult after Melbourne went down to ten-man.
Patrick Kisnorbo: 5 – Similar story to his counterpart, was strong in every contest but seemed to run out of steam with lesser players.
Jack Clisby: 5 – Failed to provide much going forward and was sound defensively, but was sacrificed following the red card for Ian Ramsay.
Jonathan Germano: 5 – Also could not add any attacking influence and was not overly exuberant in his defensive duties, a rather quiet performance in summary.
Erik Paartalu: 6 – Deployed as the anchor in front of City’s backline and played the role contently, shutting down Perth’s build up numerous times with a smart tackle, unfortunately, Paartalu did not contribute enough in the opposition’s half.
Aaron Mooy: 7 –The puppet master amongst Melbourne’s midfield, he consistently kept the ball moving and barely wasted a pass while having the vision to open up Perth, giving David Williams a chance from point blank range with a pinpoint lobbed pass. His free kick expertise was on display once more this season with a superb effort to beat the in-form Vukovic.
David Williams: 6 – Buzzed around in the first-half and had two efforts saved by some Vukovic brilliance. Although the best chance of the opening stanza fell to him and the miss was spectacular, possibly nightmare inducing.
Harry Novillo: 7.5 – Was involved in everything Melbourne were doing going forward, inside the opening ten minutes Novillo recorded six shots and setup a golden opportunity for Mooy.
Robert Koren: 6 – A rather uncharacteristic and quiet evening for the former Hull City midfielder, it just seemed like he could not get involved and produced minimal output as a result. He was replaced by Murdocca after the 70th minute.
Substitutions
Massimo Murdocca: N/A
Ian Ramsay: 4 – With an aim to restore some attacking impact after losing Retre, the Melbourne wide player worked in a wing back roll however he did not stamp his footprint on the match and cheaply turned over the ball a couple times.
Stefan Mauk: N/A
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