The Hyundai A-League playoff dream remains alive for Perth Glory after their third straight win – a 1-0 victory over Phoenix in Wellington.
Chris Harold’s first half header was enough to decide the contest and lift Glory to within five points of the top six.
“It was a good win for us and a clean sheet to boot, so I can’t ask for anything more,” said Perth boss Kenny Lowe afterwards.
Glory edge Phoenix to keep finals hopes alive
“I thought (Phoenix) came out of the blocks really sharp and asked a lot of questions, but we weathered that, changed it around in the second half and got into the game a lot more.
“When we put (Sandor) alongside (Krisztian Vadocz), brought Nebo (Marinkovic) inside and put a bit more pace out on the line to stop their fullback bombing forward, it worked really well for us. Those two controlled things really well, especially when they’ve got McGlinchey and Bonevacia in there,” he said.
But Glory’s mentor wasn’t looking too far ahead as his side continues to turns pessimists into believers.
“The dream for us is to go to Sydney and put a performance in. That’s the next dream, and then there’ll be another dream after that,” said Lowe.
“If we put performances in, we’re going to have half a chance. We’ve put performances in, in previous games and not got what we’ve deserved. We’ve done it again in the last three games, and got what we deserved.”
Harold’s winner came two days after he inked a new two-year deal at the club and was the highlight of a standout game from the energetic striker.
“I was joking with Chris that I heard he’d ordered some cigars, a curly cravat and some slippers because he’d signed a new two-year deal, because normally what happen is you take your foot off the pedal when you sign a new deal,” laughed Lowe.
“We challenged Chris to kick on even more and fair play to the kid – he’s produced today.”
Perth won’t return immediately to Western Australia, instead remaining in Wellington for a few days before crossing the Tasman to meet Sydney FC on Saturday night.
“We quite enjoy Wellington,” said Lowe with a grin.
