Glory heartbreak as Phoenix win elimination thriller

 

By , 22 Feb 2010 Justin Chadwick is a Roar Pro

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Perth Glory’s maiden A-League finals campaign came to a heartbreaking halt at the first hurdle as 10-man Wellington won 4-2 on penalties in the elimination playoff at Westpac Stadium on Sunday.

Scores were locked 1-1 after normal time and remained that way following extra time after Scott Neville’s 67th-minute header cancelled out Chris Greenacre’s 37th-minute strike.

The Phoenix were reduced to 10 men late in the first period of extra time when defender Jon McKain received his second yellow card for a sliding tackle on Glory striker Danny McBreen but the home side held on to send the match into penalties.

And from there Phoenix goalkeeper Liam Reddy starred, saving spot kicks from Naum Sekulovski and Scott Bulloch to send the Phoenix into a home semi-final against Newcastle in two weeks time.

The winner of the Wellington/Newcastle match will progress through to the preliminary final to face either Sydney FC or Melbourne.

Scenes of jubilation erupted around Wespac Stadium as Adrian Caceres’ match-winning spot kick sent the 24,267 fans into delirium.

But Reddy was the hero, diving to his left and sticking out his left palm to keep out Sekulovski’s shot before denying Bulloch’s straight drive with his left boot.

In a fiery start to the match, Phoenix midfielder Tim Brown was left nursing a gash to the head after just four minutes following a stray elbow and Glory striker Danny McBreen was brought crashing to the turf time and again as both sides tried to impose themselves.

The physical nature of the contest seemed to play into Perth’s hands as the visitors dominated possession for much of the opening half hour and created the better chances.

Neville was causing Phoenix left back Tony Lochhead all sorts of problems and the Glory midfielder would have opened the scoring in the 23rd minute had it not been for Wellington goalkeeper Liam Reddy, whose right boot helped deflect away a powerful shot on goal.

Glory kept creating chances but against the run of play Wellington opened the scoring, with a sublime back heel from Paul Ifill finding a running Manny Muscat, whose square-up into the box was met by Greenacre’s outstretched right boot to slot home into the open net.

Perth goalkeeper Tando Velaphi produced an excellent save in first-half stoppage time to keep out Ifill’s curling effort from outside the box and Velaphi again saved the day in the 51st minute with his superb reflex save parrying away Vince Lia’s powerful close-range strike.

But the Glory were creating plenty of chances themselves as Troy Hearfield was forced to clear a header off the line in the 56th minute.

The weight of chances finally paid dividends for the visitors as an unmarked Neville nodded home the equaliser after Jacob Burns’ pin-pint free kick found his team-mate unmarked at the far post.

McKain’s send-off for his dangerous tackle opened the door for Perth but Reddy pulled off a superb save low to the ground to deny Neville’s goalward-bound header in the 108th minute.

© AAP 2012
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