Melbourne Victory captain Jodie Taylor was the star of the show in the Westfield W-League fixture against Perth Glory at 6PR Stadium, with her hat-trick guiding her side to a 5-0 victory.
Melbourne Victory captain Jodie Taylor was the star of the show in the Westfield W-League fixture against Perth Glory at 6PR Stadium, with her hat-trick guiding her side to a 5-0 victory.
It was a much-improved performance from the Glory compared to last week’s record 11-0 loss against Sydney FC, but the visitors were too dominant all over the park on the day.
Taylor’s hat-trick was a memorable one for the Melbourne captain, while fellow attacker Katrina Gorry also chimed in with a double in another brilliant individual performance.
Gorry got the ball rolling in just the third minute for the visitors after her weak effort somehow managed to find itself in the bottom-left corner of the net past an outstretched Mackenzie Arnold in goal for Perth.
After dominating possession in the early stages, the Victory continued to press and captain Taylor tried her luck from just inside the area, only to see the impressive Arnold deny her.
At the other end of the park, Marianna Tabain had the Glory’s best chance when she shot from long range, but her dipping effort was just high of the target.
The Glory kept their heads up and continued to attack the Melbourne defence but a target up front was lacking to make any real challenge.
Gorry soon grabbed her second after expertly flicking her shot over Arnold to make it 2-0 in just the 23rd minute before Taylor added another just a minute later.
Another fantastic Arnold save stopped Kendall Fletcher adding her name to the score sheet after taking a quick free kick from long range before another Melbourne attack resulted in Gorry shooting over the crossbar when to seal her hat-trick on the cusp of half time.
Glory coach Jamie Harnwell brought on Erika Elze on as a half time substitute for Danielle Calautti, and the Young Matilda had no fear attacking from right back as Perth had an improved showing in the second stanza.
It didn’t take long for Taylor to make it 4-0 when she showed her class with a delightful chip with the outside of her boot to lob Arnold in the 62nd minute.
To their credit, the Glory never gave up and a surging Katarina Jukic burst into the box at the other end, but unfortunately saw her shot fall into the arms of Melbourne goalkeeper Brianna Davey.
With just under 15 minutes left to play, Taylor then sealed her hat-trick and made it 5-0 after making it look all too easy past a scrambling Glory defence.
Elisa D’Ovidio was lively for the Glory all match, but a late collision with Davey saw the midfielder stretchered off with what appeared to be concussion and Perth were unable to replace her with all substitutions already taken.
There were plenty of positives to Perth to take from the second half, while Melbourne will now take more confidence as they aim to make their second consecutive finals series.
Perth Glory 0
Melbourne Victory 5 (Katrina Gorry 3, 23, Jodie Taylor 24, 62, 78)
