Perth Glory have extended their hot A-League form and intensified the misery for the Central Coast Mariners, making the most of a two-man advantage to post a 4-0 win at nib Stadium.
Glory jump to fifth position ahead of Melbourne Victory, having won seven of their last eight matches.
Saturday night’s victory was built on the back of penalties to Diego Castro (fourth minute) and Andy Keogh (67th), and headers by Keogh (53rd) and Chris Harold (94th).
Either side of Keogh’s first goal saw Mitchell Austin and superstar Spaniard Luis Garcia receive second yellow cards to leave the Mariners with nine men for the bulk of the second half.
The result was a sixth straight defeat for a Mariners team now guaranteed the wooden spoon.
It took Glory four minutes to get on the board after Tomislav Uskok made a clumsy challenge in the air on Harold. Castro scored from the spot for his 11th goal of the campaign.
Glory threatened a second before halftime, with the chance coming in the 38th minute when the crowd was clapping in honour of Perth-born Dylan Tombides who passed away of cancer in 2014. But Keogh’s header from a free-kick hit the upright.
The second half began disastrously for Central Coast when Austin was penalised for a crude challenge on Josh Risdon and Keogh then scored from a Risdon cross.
It was the fifth straight match Keogh has scored in.
Garcia then copped a second yellow card in four minutes to give the home team a two-man edge which led to a harsh penalty call on Nick Montgomery with little contact on Risdon in the box.
Keogh made no mistake at the spot before Harold put the finishing touches on the win, scoring in the final seconds after latching onto another Risdon cross.
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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.
The Wanderers coach admits he has stuff going on in his personal life, and insists he has full support of playing group.
