Perth Glory Youth have hammered Melbourne Victory 5-0 in their Round 1 encounter at Epping Stadium on Sunday.
Perth Glory Youth have hammered Melbourne Victory 5-0 in their Round 1 encounter at Epping Stadium on Sunday.
The 2009-10 runners up thoroughly outplayed Victory and were 4-0 ahead at half time thanks to goals from Sebit Oyet (26), Andrija Jukic (40, 47) and Howard Fondyke (45).
Perth’s interplay down the flanks was too slick for Victory with Tommy Amphlett and Oyet proving a constant menaces as they paired up with Jukic who did the damage in the final third.
If Victory heads were down going into the half-time break they were well and truly buried into the dirt midway through the second half when Joshua Risdon bundled the ball home off his chest after a calamitous error from Victory goalkeeper Rani Dowisha in the 70th minute..
That was enough for Perth to pick up all three points with a classy and efficient first-up performance.
Early on in the match, the Glory did all the pressing with Victory barely able to make it out of their defence.
Oyet made the most of the space afforded to him down the left hand side of the pitch, delivering for Perth’s Cameron Edwards to flash a header just over the bar 10 minutes in.
Just five minutes later Glory came closest to breaking the deadlock.
Jukic curled an almost pin-point shot from the left hand side of the box around the ‘keeper, but as it glanced inches wide it seemed only a matter of time before Perth made their mark.
At that stage Amphlett was beginning to make a real impression down the right for the Glory.
His jinking run ended up with a decent shot on goal that was parried away by Victory keeper Dowisha, who was beginning to work overtime.
In the 26th minute Oyet opened Perth’s account with a delightful, curling, cushioned shot similar to that of Jukic’s, which drifted up and over the keeper from the left side.
Then the dam wall burst.
A penalty awarded to Jukic on 40 minutes was hit straight at the keeper by Dean Evans before Jukic duly slotted home the rebound to make it 2-0.
Another beautiful run from Amphlett two minutes later ended with a cut-back that found Fondyke, who made no mistake from close range to make it three.
Then just on the stroke of half time Jukic rubbed salt into the wound when he bagged his second from a similar squared ball after another lovely piece of play from Amphlett.
There wasn’t too much relief for Victory after half-time although Perth could only manage one more goal after a mix up at the back with the keeper allowed Risdon in.
Both sides rung the changes from the bench but the quality of the game dissipated, with Perth’s 20-minute period early in the game enough to secure the points.
Melbourne did share more of the play in the second stanza with Tedros Yabio looking the most likely up front, but chances were few and far between all day for Victory.
Melbourne Victory: 0
Perth Glory: 5 (Oyet 26, Jukic 40, 47, Fondyke 45, Risdon 70)
