Melbourne Victory midfielder Alana Murphy scored a stoppage-time stunner from well outside the box to seal a dramatic 1-0 Ninja A-League win over Perth Glory at the Sam Kerr Football Centre on Sunday evening.
There was nothing to split the two sides through 90 minutes of regular time, although Victory could have taken the lead in the second half if not for Glory keeper Casey Dumont, who produced a heroic penalty stop to deny Rachel Lowe an opener.
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Glory looked set to take a share of the spoils in the club’s first home game at the Sam Kerr Football Centre before Murphy’s ambitious attempt from long distance beat former Victory star Dumont and buried into the bottom-right corner.
The 92nd-minute wondergoal handed Victory all three points and helped Jeff Hopkins’ side up to second on the Ninja A-League table, just one point behind local rivals Melbourne City.
Victory’s impressive road win was notched in the absence of CommBank Matildas duo Emily Gielnik and Alex Chidiac, making the end result all the more important for the travelling side.
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The 1-0 defeat was hard to take for Glory, who had bravely held one of the league’s top sides through 92 minutes before Murphy broke the game apart in stoppage time.
For Dumont, conceding the late winner spoiled what would have been the perfect home debut for her new club Glory; the Ninja A-League legend became the first goalkeeper in competition history to notch 150 league games on Sunday evening and looked set to be the hero after her penalty save in the second half.
