Goals from Dean Heffernan and Billy Mehmet have seen Perth Glory defeat Melbourne Heart at nib Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Goals from Dean Heffernan and Billy Mehmet have seen Perth Glory defeat Melbourne Heart 2-0 at nib Stadium
The win sees Perth move to second on the Hyundai A-League ladder, behind Adelaide United on the goals scored tally as both sides have six points and a plus-two goal difference from their opening three games.
Heffernan scored the Glory’s first goal in the 38th minute after some sloppy Heart defending, before Mehmet sealed the victory five minutes from time.
The opening goal came when a botched Heart clearance from Jacob Burns’ corner saw the ball come across the face of goal and allow Heffernan to tap home from just five yards.
Mehmet had missed a number opportunities throughout the match before he eventually added his name to the scoresheet with his second goal of the season.
Early in the encounter, it was the goal-scorer Heffernan who had Glory’s first significant chance of the game after a Josh Risdon cross found him unmarked at the back post.
Clint Bolton blocked the first shot from Heffernan before Matt Thompson cleared the second on the line amongst appeals for handball.
Perth continued to pepper the Heart box with crosses in the first half but on three occasions Mehmet was unable to direct his header on target and force Bolton into action.
The visitors had the better of the possession in the first half but failed to convert that into significant chances with only four shots for the half, none of which were on target.
The two most clear-cut of those chances fell to Richard Garcia, but the former Hull midfielder sprayed the first one high and wide before sending the second over the crossbar.
Tempers threatened to boil over late in the first half after a couple of hard challenges from Perth on Heart players.
Michael Thwaite was carded for his challenge on Dylan Macallister before Burns joined his teammate in referee Matt Gillett’s book, although Aziz Behich was lucky to have escape a caution in the incident.
David Vrankovic looked certain to level the scores just after the restart when he got on the end of a Mate Dugandzic cross, but the Heart man sent his volley across the face of goal from just inside the six-yard box.
Perth wasted several chances to finish the Heart off before Mehmet’s goal, the most glaring of which was from Chris Harold, who worked his way in between a pair of Heart defenders only to blaze the ball over the cross bar.
Bet365.com Man of the Match: Josh Risdon – the youngster looks set to have a stand-out season for Perth and is getting better every game.
Perth Glory 2 (Heffernan 38, Mehmet 85)
Melbourne Heat 0
Crowd: 7,548 at nib Stadium, Perth