The Melbourne Victory have taken temporary ownership of second spot on the Westfield W-League ladder after recording a comfortable 3-0 win over Perth Glory at Bob Jane Stadium on Saturday.
Goals from captain Tal Karp and Louisa Bisby, coupled with an own goal from Perth defender Carys Hawkins, ensured the comprehensive result which now sees the Glory languishing at the foot of the table with no points from their first three matches of the season.
However, despite dominating the first half, Melbourne – which had the ball in its forward half for 67 per cent of the opening 45 minutes and eight shots on goal to Perth’s two – struggled to find the back of the net initially.
After grimly holding on to a clean sheet, the Glory’s resistance was finally broken in the 47th minute when defender Emily Dunn brought down Melbourne’s Rebecca Tegg in the penalty box.
Captain Tal Karp duly slotted the ball in the left-hand side of the net from the spot for her first goal of the season to find some reward for the Victory’s domination.
Melbourne doubled its advantage in the 75th minute when a superb corner from Sarah Groenewald forced Hawkins to head the ball into her own net.
Louisa Bisby put the icing on the cake eight minutes from time when she headed another lovely Groenewald corner past Glory keeper Maya Diederichsen for the home team’s third goal.
Tegg was the player of the match as she proved far too strong over the ball in attack and constantly caused headaches for Perth’s defence.
Despite the Victory’s dominance of the first stanza, Perth showed a lot of commitment in defence, led by captain Tanya Oxtoby and Hawkins to keep the home team – which had eight corners to nothing before half-time – scoreless before stoppage time of the first half.
Melbourne was left to wonder how it didn’t open its account in the 32nd minute following a Groenewald long free kick which led to a goal-mouth scramble with Diederichsen out of position. However, two chances for Melbourne to score went missing.
Perth’s best chance of the match came in the 24th minute as Stacey Learmont caught Maika Ruyter-Hooley napping and got on the end of a very dangerous, awkward through ball which dribbled into the Victory’s own penalty area. But Learmont could only manage to crash into goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri who got to the ball first.
Perth finally yielded in the second minute of stoppage time when Karp scored her penalty.
Although it started the second half in much better touch Perth, which survived a cracking long range attempt from Marlies Oostdam 30 yards out in the 52nd minute, went further behind when Hawkins conceded an own goal 15 minutes from time.
In the 78th minute, the Glory had the chance to half their deficit when they were handed a spot kick of their own after Bisby handled the ball in the area but Barbieri correctly dived to her left to deny Collette McCallum.
Four minutes later, Bisby added salt to Perth’s wound with the Victory’s third goal of the afternoon.
Lisa de Vanna was Perth’s best performer with some skillfully creative runs in midfield and up forward.
Match Details
Melbourne Victory 3 (Tal Karp 47pen, Carys Hawkins 75og, Louisa Bisby 82)
Perth Glory 0
Bob Jane Stadium, Melbourne
Crowd: N/A
Referee: Kate Jacewicz
Melbourne Victory line-up: 1.Melissa BARBIERI (gk), 3.Marlies OOSTDAM, 4.Tal KARP (c), 6.Maika RUYTER-HOOLEY (5.Laura ALLEWAY 77-), 7.Sarah GROENEWALD, 8.Louisa BISBY (2.Megan ARCHER 86-), 9.Rebecca TEGG, 11.Brittany TIMKO, 15.Daniela DIGIAMMARCO, 16.Alisha FOOTE (13.Deanna NICESKI 83-), 19.Enza BARILLA
Substitutes not used: 20.Nicole PAUL (gk)
Yellow cards: Sarah GROENEWALD 93-
Red Cards: Nil
Perth Glory line-up: 2.Stacey LEARMONT (7.Ciara CONWAY 64-), 3.Carys HAWKINS, 5.Shannon MAY, 8.Tanya OXTOBY (c), 11.Lisa DE VANNA 12.Dani CALAUTTI, 13.Elisa D-OVIDIO (9.Katy COGHLAN 83-), 14.Collette McCALLUM, 15.Elle SEMMENS (16.Rachael SMITH 21-), 19.Emily DUNN, 20.Maya DIEDERICHSEN (gk)
Substitutes not used: 1.Kate STEWART (gk)
Yellow cards: Stacey Learmont 33-, Elisa D-Ovidio 51-
Red Cards: Nil
