Sky Blue On A Not So Glorious Night

Another venture to nib Stadium to watch a STILL top of the table Perth Glory play host to an improving Sydney FC on a nice balmy night in Perth. However due to many factors things did not go so well for the hosts as Sydney played as if the controversial match was just a simple run of the mill home clash in Sydney.
Perth were never really dominating the match in the final third but they were moving the ball up and clearing their lines rather well until some silly and questionable decisions fell Sydney's way. The new signing Paljic was incredibly below average and saying sub-par would be polite. Paljic made a stupid pull on the shirt of the Sydney player who fell down and the referee had no choice but to award the penalty.

Sydney hit the lead and Perth were pressing for an equaliser but drama ensured in the Perth penalty area which should have been a Perth penalty but it wasnt given. Sydney defender Faty brought down Dulbic and prevented him from getting up by grabbing his head and shirt. The referee based on awarding the first penalty should have awarded Perth a penalty. However both Dulbic and Faty were sent off after both exchanged heated words to each other which involved both sides.

The referee awarded a bizarre free kick to Sydney after sending both players off and effectively killed off the flow of the game from this referee brain melt. Perth were pressed with the loss of their fiery defender and just looked rather toothless with Keogh just running around doing rather little.

Despite Sydney having another player sent off, they looked like they had not lost 2 players and it was Perth who were playing with 9 men, a rather poor display from league leaders.

Another penalty was awarded to Sydney in the second half when Janko was brought down from the new Slovenian signing Kramar which was rather soft as Janko was throwing himself at every opportunity any Perth player placed a hand or showed a physical presence. Sydney then doubled their lead 2 goals to nil.
Perth had a brief glimmer of hope when they pegged one back to make it 2-1 when minutes later a moment of old Perth crept in. Poor defending combined with poor positioning left Vukovic stranded with Thwaite running to cut off the play but an initial save from Vukovic rebounded and Ibini slotted it in to seal the game 3-1.

Due to the stupid high prices at the ground I did not buy any food or drink but noticed someone in the crowd in front of me complain that a chicken wrap and a coke cost nearly 20 dollars. You would expect that for a restaurant and even then it would be slightly on the high side in Perth.

Perth looked like a team outside of the top 6, perhaps Perth are not the consummate league leaders perhaps the fans of the west think with a performance like that. Hopefully Perth get a rocket up the proverbial and put in hopefully a better performance against an Adelaide side that is playing some solid football.