A first-half goal from Collette McCallum has given Perth Glory its first win of the season in a 1-0 result over Newcastle in their Westfield W-League clash at ME Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Powered by a scintillating performance from star striker Lisa De Vanna, the Glory opened the scoring through a McCallum corner from the right that curled into goal in the 10th minute.
The hosts produced numerous chances throughout the first 45 minutes, but it was as if the two sides changed jumpers at the break, such was Newcastle’s dominance of the second period.
Jets midfielder Carlie Ikonomou came closest to levelling the scores, seeing her flicked effort come back off the inside of the post just before the hour.
But that was as good as it got for the Jets, who drop to sixth on the Westfield W-League table as the Glory climb into fourth, on equal points with table-topping trio Brisbane, Central Coast and Melbourne, who all play later in the round.
From the outset, this was always going to be the De Vanna show as the explosive Matildas striker showed off her full bag of tricks.
In the seventh minute De Vanna teed up Elisa D’Ovidio, who shot over the bar, while the striker’s skills then saw her escape a cluster of Jets defenders three minutes later, her ball releasing D’Ovidio again whose powerful effort was turned around the post by Alison Logue.
From the resulting corner the Glory took the lead as deadball specialist McCallaum curled the ball into a nest of players. McCallum was credited the goal, but it did appear to have bounced off De Vanna’s back in a goalmouth scramble and into the back of the net.
In the 20th minute another classy ball from De Vanna released Marianna Tabain, but the youngster could only fire directly at Logue from a one-on-one.
For all their industry in the midfield, the Jets were relying too heavily on runs down the left by Caitlin Jarvie, the winger almost scoring a fantastic solo goal as she burst into the box, only to be harassed off the ball by Tanya Oxtoby.
De Vanna suffered a knock to her shoulder in the 37th minute in an occuous incident as she slipped to the ground and she struggled to recreate her earlier magic from then on.
Indeed, the entire Glory side seemed to slip a notch from then on as the Jets lifted their intensity and piled on the pressure throughout the second half.
Amber Neilson started threatening through her excellent deadball delivery, setting up a great chance for Ikonomou in the 57th minute where the midfielder’s flicked effort slipped through Glory stopper Emma Wirkus’s fingers before ricocheting off the inside of the post and out to safety.
In the 69th minute, Wirkus atoned for her earlier mistake, tipping a powerful effort from Kate Hensman over the bar, while the Glory enjoyed their best chance of the period nine minutes later when De Vanna was bodychecked on the edge of the area by Hayley Crawford.
This time McCallum’s free kick just went wide into the side netting, the miss almost coming back to haunt the Glory as Newcastle substitute Emma Stewart busted the offside trap in the 90th minute.
However, an alert Wirkus came off her line to smother Stewart’s powerful effort, seeing the Glory record their first win in front of almost 400 fans.
Perth Glory 1 (McCallum 10)
Newcastle Jets 0
