Perth Glory 0-0 Newcastle
Hunter Stadium
20th October 2013
Attendance: 12,383
Perth Glory grabbed their first point for the Hyundai A-League Season with a hard-fought 0-0 draw against the Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium on Sunday. Both teams will be disappointed with the result after squandering so many chances throughout the match. However, a point apiece seems to be a fair result given the dry pitch conditions.
From the outset, Jet’s had the upper hand in the opening exchanges. Perth Glory found themselves under siege early on as an attacking Jets outfit found holes in Perth’s struggling and inexperienced defence. This was further compounded when key defender Josh Risdon went down with a suspected a lower leg/knee injury in the first 10 minutes which kept him out for the rest of the match.
Sidnei was proved to be the flair that Glory needed as he made numerous runs down the flank in an attempt in trying to produce something for Perth but the first half seemed to be all Newcastle and Gary Van Egmond wouldn’t have been impressed with the nil all score line going into the break.
The second half began in similar vain as Newcastle continued to create chances, only for keeper Danny Vukovic to parry them away from goal. However, former Perth striker Adam Taggart had the pick of the bunch as his shot hammered into the cross-bar.
It wasn’t till late in the game when the Glory gathered all their momentum for a late surge at goal, with Maclaren finding ample space in the Jets defence and had a golden one on one opportunity against the Jets keeper only to secure a poor first touch and miss his chance to get on the scoreboard.
Sidnei kept Impressing and proved too much for Newcastle to handle making more impressive runs akin to his exploits in first half and looked the most likely to create something that would break the deadlock. But it wasn’t meant to be and both teams shared the spoils. With a lot of positives coming from the Glory camp, one would have to think how long they can keep going without star striker Shane Smeltz – who missed for a second week with an injury and was dearly missed up front.
Perth Glory 0-0 Newcastle
Hunter Stadium
20th October 2013
Attendance: 12,383
Perth Glory Starting XI: 1.Daniel VUKOVIC (GK), 3. Brandon O’NEILL, 4. Ryan EDWARDS, 5. Steve PANTELIDIS, 7. Jacob BURNS (c), 10. Jamie MACLAREN, 11. Adrian ZAHRA (17. Chris HAROLD), 14. Steven MCGARRY (6. Cameron EDWARDS), 16. Sidnei SCIOLA MORAES, 19. Joshua RISDON (2. Jack CLISBY), 21. Scott JAMIESON.
Subs not used: 18. Jack DUNCAN, 20. Daniel DE SILVA
