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Sydney FC broke through for their first victory of the A-League season and extended Perth Glory’s losing streak to six matches with a crushing 3-0 triumph at Nib Stadium on Sunday.
A brace to Bruno Cazarine and Alex Brosque’s third goal of the season saw Sydney finally claim a prized three points, ending a demoralising 10-game winless run for the defending champions.
But while Sydney breathed a sigh of relief, the result cast Perth into further trouble little more than a week after Ian Ferguson took over as coach from Dave Mitchell.
Glory’s sixth straight loss saw them remain mired to eighth spot on 11 points – two points adrift of the top six.
To add salt to the Glory’s wounds, skipper Jacob Burns will miss next Saturday’s clash with Central Coast in Sydney after collecting his fifth yellow card of the season.
Sydney remain last on the table and a worrying six points outside the top six but their breakthrough win could prove the catalyst for a charge up the table.
Both sides made sweeping changes to their line-up, with the Glory axing Andy Todd and Naum Sekulovski altogether and dropping Australian marquee Mile Sterjovski and Anthony Skorich to the bench.
Star striker Robbie Fowler, Jamie Harnwell and Branko Jelic were the handy inclusions into the starting XI.
Sydney also made a few big statements, dropping Stuart Musialik from the squad, replacing goalkeeper Liam Reddy with Ivan Necevski and relegating striker Mark Bridge to the bench.
Necevski endured a nervous first half, with a hesitant moment between him and defender Hayden Foxe almost allowing Glory striker Michael Baird to chip through the first goal in the 12th minute.
And Necevski had his heart in his mouth again in the 17th minute when he charged and missed a flighted ball into the box, only for Baird to shoot his header at the far post wide of the target to the disappointment of the 8870 fans.
But Sydney hit the lead in the 25th minute courtesy of some lackadaisical defence from Glory defender Todd Howarth, who allowed Cazarine to float in at the far post to angle an easy header past Perth custodian Aleks Vrteski.
Brosque added a second in the 52nd minute when he made the most of a fortunate ricochet to drill past Vrteski, and the game was over eight minutes before time when Cazarine skipped past Jamie Harnwell to slot home his second of the afternoon.
Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka refused to get carried away with the win.
“It’s only one step forward but an important step,” Lavicka said.
Perth coach Ian Ferguson was most unhappy with the Glory’s display.
“It wasn’t good enough, pure and simple,” Ferguson said.
“Not Perth Glory-like. Disappointed. Not a good performance.”
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