Rising star Danny De Silva nailed a 25-yard wonder goal and Chris Harold scored a brace to lift Perth Glory to a 4-1 win over Central Coast in Saturday night’s A-League clash at nib Stadium.
With the Glory clinging to a 2-1 lead, De Silva latched onto Harold’s lob pass, tapped the ball up to himself while backing into a defender, before burying the roundhouse volley to the joy of the 9660 fans.
Harold sealed the win with his second goal of the match in the 78th minute, with Glory now six points clear on top of the table after Melbourne Victory lost 1-0 to Melbourne City earlier in the night.
In contrast, the Mariners are languishing in eighth spot after their winless streak stretched to 10 games.
In another blow to the Mariners, defender Michael Neill limped off in the first half with what appeared to be a painful leg injury.
Glory were also left with an injury concern after winger Sidnei came off to ice his left calf – an injury that ruled him out of the early part of the season.
Although De Silva produced the highlight of the night, Harold was the main destroyer after playing a part in all four goals despite injuring his left elbow early.
Against the run of play in the 33rd minute, Andy Keogh produced a mid-air, back-heel volley to release Sidnei, who squared the ball for Harold to score with an easy tap-in.
Then two minutes later, Perth were gifted their second courtesy of a terrible clearance from Mariners goalkeeper Reddy.
Harold intercepted Reddy’s wayward pass, before Keogh finished off the passage of play with his seventh goal of the season.
Reddy made up for his mistake with a brilliant save to deny Keogh in the 42nd minute, and the Mariners pulled a goal back just after half-time when Matt Simon sneaked an angled shot past Danny Vukovic.
But De Silva, who will join Italian giants AS Roma at the end of the season, put the game to bed with his piece of magic.
Glory entered the match after enduring a dramatic week.
Shortly after losing Tuesday’s FFA Cup final to Adelaide, Glory were accused in media reports of rorting the salary cap over the previous three seasons.
Football Federation Australia have since launched an investigation and Glory certainly played like a side under siege in the first 30 minutes before finding their feet.
In a bit of light-hearted banter, Glory sent out a tweet after Keogh’s goal stating: “Just to confirm – Andy Keogh is currently outscoring the @CCMariners whole team for Season 10.”
In reply, the Mariners tweeted back: “Can you please confirm that Andy Keogh is correctly in the salary cap?”
bryan
Guest
Why should the local TV Stations make a big fuss? After all,they are not the Official Broadcaster for the "A" League! I don't watch 9 or 10's News much.but TVW does give the Glory reasonable coverage in the Sports Section of that programme.-------certainly as big as that for the NBL. If you want better coverage,front up with the money,& the Commercial TV Stations will,within the limits of the law,produce you a programme. The FTA Broadcaster of record,the SBS is basically an ES based setup.& it shows in their coverage. Glory?-who are they? Obviously,this is a Sports forum,but one simple fact should be pointed out. Many people would rather have a Tonsillectomy with a blunt stick than to watch a bunch of blokes kicking a ball around a paddock,---so we can write them off for a start! Summer presents a lot of opportunities to do other things rather than going to the Football,such as Christmas shopping,going to the beach,going away for the weekend & others. On one Saturday 5 days out from Christmas,roughly 1 person in every 200 chose to attend this game,which isn't that bad. After all,the Eagles & Dockers,even with their massive following only put up 4 out of each 200. (OK,this may increase with the new stadium,but even 6 out of 200 doesn't really make the Glory turnout look that bad)
Bondy
Guest
So would more people attend T20 in Perth than turn up for the national cricket team itself in Test or ODI format ,it appears that way, and it also appears the longer the duration of a game of cricket no matter who plays less people will show up for it,in modern times people are time savvy. We're becoming like Americans who base their enjoyment of a sport as to the duration of that event . Just wondering also how many accredited/committed A League journalists write for the main papers in Perth,anybody ? ..
Matthew
Guest
ACtually that is not accurate. Perth Scorchers home games are some of the most attended Cricket Matches in Perth. Most are sellouts and those that are not are generally only 300-400 tickets away from that.
Bondy
Guest
I dont feel you have to even live there to gauge the local scene if Perth Glory are shoved down the back of the sports section in print and last if at all by the local tv companies then thats what to expect crowd wise, the only thing is if they host a GF then all the local media will then cover it " to make themselves feel good " and no other reason then all the locals will follow it . It's a shame because people really won't turn up for Cricket in Perth which distorts the sporting market there, but if they dont cover or prop up Cricket it does not exist as a sport ..
Ian
Guest
Josh is a young WSW fan that types crap. Nothing wrong with Glory's crowd. WSW were only 4th in average attendance remember.
Matthew
Guest
The best way to view how the Media report on Football here is to check out the West Australian (the only daily newspaper here). You rarely.. and I mean rarely see Cricket or AFL off the back page. And youg et AFL stories there even out of season. Thatsj ust how prevalent it is. Football can often be buried up to 6-7 pages in. This is a small thing but: a TIcket tot he Glory no longer covers public transport. For many years you bought a ticket and you got a free ride on public transport to and from the game. I have no doubt that got more people coming in as they didnt have to worry about taking some extra coin for the train/bus/other or parking the car. The Glory no longer do that.. and havnt been doing it for somet time and I think it mayo f affected some attendances.
jaye s
Roar Rookie
has nothing to do with Sage. he is doing his best in a pro-afl state. the media act as if there is a blanket ban on the round code here. it is them who are holding glory back as they are afraid of the heights reached by glory at the end of the NSL.
jaye s
Roar Rookie
correction it was 9660 crowd
Matthew
Guest
Nobody could honestly tell me that the Glory were playing well in that first half an hour. They were barely switched on and couldnt pick out a man let alone get a pass directly to them. It took a goal to totally change the game up... as it often does. Good Work Glory, but you have to look at these lapses and do something about it.
Bondy
Guest
Its interesting when you move away from the bigger teams in Italy or the Serie A you generally are looking at home crowds of around 8-10k for mid-low table teams or non financial powerhouses .I noticed this years ago or decades and was surprised, not every league resembles the EPL it would be nice to get another 2k to these matches but is it possibly too rowdy for some of the locals who could be possibly more attuned to Cricket and AFL ? . Its going to be a tough season for us Mariners but there were some great goals for Perth Glory last night and are closing in on a Premiership this year ...
bryan
Guest
I'm getting a bit "long in the tooth" to hoof it to the NIB,then climb umpteen steps,but last night was worth it A Sandgroper's favourite sound is a crowd baying for "Eastern States" blood.& we did it well, even with only 10,000, as the hapless Mariners were comprehensively demolished before us. Sorry to gloat,but it has been a long time coming.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
I was right in front behind goals for those - went into absolute raptures. Cue the terrace singing "What shall we do with the drunken keeper?"
pete4
Guest
It appears the Western Force actually average 12k and when you consider they only play 8 home games a season it isn't much better than the Glory
punter
Guest
The goal was good, the the back heel mid air pass with great vision 3 minutes later was supreme!!!!!
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
Western force average 20k?
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
Harold was fantastic i've always rated him, he's fast, powerful and direct. Better player in my opinion than Hersi, not sure if he's had a couple of niggling injuries this year that have kept him out of the team. De Silva's goal really was magic, audacious! Was playing more centrally last night which suits him far more than out wide, which as we saw against Adelaide renders him pretty ineffective.
Towser
Guest
What is pathetic is more talk about the crowd on here ,than the magic goal from young Danny De Silva and not too bad either from young Harold. Hopefully this lad(Danny) is not another Kaz Patafta, personally I think not. Some of his passing is instant and accurate and not short on vision either. If he keeps going on the same upward trajectory I see big things for this lad at Roma and eventually the Socceroos.
Realfootball
Guest
On the crowd issue, it took Brisbane 2 successful seasons to recover most of their lost fans after several seasons of dire football. Perth have been down and out for far longer. It will take time.
AR
Guest
So 10,000 is "Disgusting, shameful, embarrassing"...but presumably 12,000 would have been "solid, encouraging, healthy"..?
bobbym
Guest
Agree.