Perth Glory marquee William Gallas suffered yet another injury scare in Friday night’s 1-1 A-League draw with Melbourne Victory at nib Stadium.
Gallas, who missed seven games earlier in the season due to a calf injury, was subbed off in the 84th minute after injuring his left leg in a heavy fall.
The former Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham defender limped as he slowly made his way to the bench, but he didn’t seem overly concerned with the injury.
Although Victory managed to end their run of consecutive 5-0 defeats, they still appeared to be in a form slump during the 1-1 stalemate.
A 36th-minute penalty to Guilherme Finkler got the Victory off to a good start, but Perth were back on level terms in the 50th minute when new recruit Darvydas Sernas scored with just his second touch in the A-League.
Lithuanian international Sernas was meant to come on straight after half-time, but his introduction was delayed by 105 seconds after officials told him to change his socks.
Then another 105 seconds later, he curled home a wonder goal from outside the box to send the 10,151 fans into raptures.
Sernas, who only received his international clearance to play hours before kick-off, lifted his shirt after scoring the goal to reveal a picture of a baby.
Glory dominated play for much of the second half, but Victory striker Andrew Nabbout had two golden chances to snatch all three points.
Nabbout was left looking for a hole to hide in when he fired way wide of the target in the 79th minute with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Then two minutes later, his weak attempt at goal was easily saved by Danny Vukovic.
Glory also had their chances late in the game, but they couldn’t produce the final touch.
The result left Victory in fourth spot and Glory in seventh.
In a scrappy opening half, new Victory signing Tom Rogic’s class stood out as both sides struggled to create many clear-cut opportunities.
Rogic went close to opening the scoring in the 34th minute when his 26-yard effort struck the crossbar.
But the Victory were on the board two minutes later when Glory defender Jack Clisby gave away a penalty after grabbing Archie Thompson’s shirt and pulling the striker to ground.
Glory interim coach Kenny Lowe clearly wasn’t happy with some decisions that went against his team in the first half, and approached referee Kris Griffiths-Jones at half-time to air his frustrations.
Rogic was subbed off in the 74th minute.
Glory interim coach Kenny Lowe said Gallas had received a knock to his calf but hoped the injury wasn’t serious.
Lowe felt the first-half penalty shouldn’t have been awarded.
“I asked the ref to look at it at halftime,” Lowe said.
“I wasn’t aggressive in any way, I just said ‘have a look, and chat to me later’.
“I asked him again at fulltime whether it was a penalty. He said, ‘yes’. I said, ‘it looks as though you got it wrong twice’.
“It didn’t look like a penalty. If it was, it was very, very soft.”
Victory coach Kevin Muscat smiled when told about Lowe’s comments.
“Soft – definitely. But if it was a penalty, it’s a penalty,” Muscat said.
“I had a conversation with Kenny and he did think it was soft.
“But we’ve conceded a couple as well along the way that maybe were a bit soft. That was our first one (to go our way) tonight.”
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Here is the way the Roar expert panel sees all the action unfolding across the final weekend of play prior to the semi-finals.
Mathew Leckie played a pivotal part in Melbourne City claiming an 8-nil win; playing a role in several of his team's goals.
The loser of the Sydney Derby will be under immense pressure entering the final three matches of the season.
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
Sydney moved into fourth with their point but Glory's finals hopes are now officially extinguished.
Anthony Caceres is a player with immense talent and has a fantastic work rate, broke the deadlock against the Mariners in the 74th minute.
