A delighted Mile Sterjovski has dedicated his penalty goal in Perth Glory’s 2-0 victory over Gold Coast United to newly-born daughter Lilly, who arrived the day before the match.
Sterjovski’s wife Sharon delivered the latest addition to the clan, the couple’s third child, at 3am on Friday morning, just 40 hours before Sterjovski took the field in just his third appearance for the club this season.
But when young Gold Coast defender Zach Anderson suffered a 19th-minute brain snap, holding his hands up to tap away a Sterjovski corner, the former Socceroo was determined to take the spot kick and made sure regular penalty taker Shane Smeltz knew all about it.
“I said, ‘I’m taking it, go away’,” Sterjovski said with a grin.
“I just said, ‘I’m ready to take it, leave it for me’.”
And take it he did as he sent United goalkeeper Glen Moss the wrong way to notch up his 12th goal for the club and his first since scoring against Brisbane Roar on January 7 this year.
“I felt really confident and focussed, so I really wanted to take it,” he added.
“The preparation was pretty difficult ’cause I was unable to train yesterday and I haven’t had much sleep in the last 48 hours.”
“But the emotions are high and I really want to dedicate that goal to my daughter Lilly and to my beautiful wife and also to my sons Luka and Sonny and it really meant a lot to me.”
“I wanted it really bad to be honest.”
It’s been an interrupted campaign so far for 32-year-old Sterjovski, who fought his way back into the side after not being selected during the first five weeks of the season.
Having returned to the team for the matches against Sydney and Melbourne Victory, he dropped out again for last week’s horror 4-0 loss to Brisbane as Sharon was due last weekend.
But that result was the farthest thing from Sterjovski’s mind and from the mind of his coach Ian Ferguson on Saturday night as Smeltz scored another penalty in the 54th minute, ending the Glory’s six-week winless run.
“I was really pleased with the way the boys held the ball, moved it about and created a few chances,” said Ferguson, who felt the result would boost confidence ahead of away clashes with Sydney FC at Campbelltown next Wednesday and Wellington Phoenix three days later.
“The goals are penalties but at the end of the day you’ve still got to create them and put them away, so I was absolutely delighted with them.”
“Confidence wise it was great as well, we’d just come off a bit of a hiding up there in Brisbane and to play the way we played, some of our football tonight was pleasing,” he said.
