Perth Glory has beaten Newcastle Jets 2-0 to record its first win of the 2009/10 Hyundai A-League season at ME Bank Stadium on Sunday.
A healthy crowd of 9,398 turned up to see the new-look Glory for the first time this season and were rewarded with a first half goal to Wayne Srhoj and second half wonder strike from Adriano Pellegrino to secure the two-goal win.
The win ends a run of two losses to start the season for the Glory and is just the second clean sheet of goalkeeper Tando Velaphi’s career, while the result gives the Jets a win, loss and draw from their opening three games.
The Glory began by defying their early-season results and starting the brighter of the teams in their first home game of the season.
On several occasions in the opening 20 minutes the Glory looked dangerous going forward with crosses, but the Jets were able to hold on gallantly until the 23rd minute.
Mile Sterjovski was able to coolly put Srhoj in behind the Jets’ defence and he had no trouble slotting the ball past Ben Kennedy for the game’s opening goal before the rain began to fall.
Newcastle’s problems then worsened with Ben Kantarovski off with an ankle injury for Sean Rooney, and Fabio Vignaroli and Sasho Petrovski picking up yellow cards.
The best chance of the remainder of the half also fell the Glory’s way with Victor Sikora just putting too much on a ball that could have given Sterjovski a clear-cut chance to give the home side a second goal.
Jason Hoffman also had a good chance for the Jets just before half-time, but his shot from outside the box sailed just wide. The Jets remained frustrated going into the break with Rooney and Ljubo Milicevic also earning yellow cards from referee Craig Zetter.
Momentum had swung somewhat Newcastle’s way as the rain continued to fall to start the second half.
Tarek Elrich went close to scoring but couldn’t get his shot on target after a good cross from Milicevic and header from Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
The Glory’s win was sealed shortly after when Pellegrino drilled a classic strike from just inside the box right past Kennedy. The cross coming in from Naum Sekulovski was perfect and the Jets ‘keeper had no hope of stopping Pellegrino’s shot.
Matthew Mayora had a golden chance to score Perth’s third goal shortly after with a clear path to goal with Kennedy out of position, but his rushed shot went wide.
Glory coach Dave Mitchell was impressed with his team’s effort to get the win and believes it is the kick-start to the Glory’s season after two losses on the road.
“This kick-started our season now and it’s a bit of a relief for all the players,” Mitchell said
“Defensively we were very strong and we probably lacked a few combinations still, but the second goal was a great move. I’ve been telling Pellegrino to get in the box to score goals all week and thankfully he listened and did it.”
Jets coach Branko Culina wasn’t terribly disappointed in the loss, realising that travelling to Perth to get a win is never an easy task.
“In all the years including the times when I was with Sydney United, Sydney Olympic and Canberra, I can’t remember winning here,” Culina said.
“It is a difficult trip and was always going to be a danger game knowing that Perth lost its first two games and were playing their first game at home. We probably helped them a little by not keeping the ball as well as we would have liked though.”
Perth remains at home to host the Melbourne Victory on Friday night before travelling to Central Coast and then hosting Gold Coast United, while Newcastle returns home to play Gold Coast, before travelling to Melbourne and hosting the Brisbane Roar.
Perth Glory 2 (Srhoj 23, Pellegrino 71)
Newcastle Jets 0
Crowd: 9398 at ME Bank Stadium.
