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Perth Glory continued their unbeaten start to the A-League season with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle Jets at Perth’s NIB Stadium on Saturday.
The Glory are top of the table after two wins and draw but can be overtaken by North Queensland or Central Coast later in the round.
The Jets drew their previous games and have just one goal from three outings.
Perth took the lead right on half time through substitute Branko Jelic and dominated the second period in front of 12,031 fans.
Victory was soured by an ankle injury which ended the game for former Socceroos forward Mile Sterjovski late in the first half.
Newcastle promoted Tarek Elrich and Jobe Wheelhouse to the starting 11 while Perth retained the same lineup who beat Melbourne 2-0 in the previous round.
Sterjovski had the first good chance of the game in the 17th minute but his shot from 20 metres after getting the ball from a throw-in went wide.
The Jets had their best chance just two minutes later when Marko Jesic fiercely struck a free-kick from the edge of the box, but his effort hit the crossbar and went over.
Jelic, who replaced Sterjovski, gave Perth the lead seconds before the break after Todd Howarth’s strong volley was parried by Newcastle keeper Ben Kennedy straight to the Serbian striker, allowing him to score off his chest.
The Glory had a great chance to double the lead in the 47th minute, but Robbie Fowler’s header cannoned off the crossbar.
The Jets introduced Ali Abbas at half-time and Labinot Haliti in the 66th minute to try to break Perth’s control but still couldn’t maintain possession or territory.
Perth coach Dave Mitchell said he was relieved his team held on given their recent history.
“Going on past games we’ve lost late goals, so it was pretty nerve-wracking,” he said.
“We didn’t particularly play as well as we’d like, but we created enough chances to win the game.”
Jets coach Branko Culina said he was disappointed with his side’s effort.
“We didn’t play well enough. I don’t think the opposition was ever outstanding, though they deserved to win because they got a goal and we didn’t,” Culina said.
“We didn’t have enough players that turned up to play today. We defended valiantly but didn’t do ourselves justice with the ball.”
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