Glory roar at home, as Brisbane held by Phoenix
Perth Glory has kick started its season with a 2-0 win over the Newcastle Jets at the ME Bank Stadium on Sunday. In the earlier game, Brisbane Roar surrendered its second lead in as many games to draw 1-1 with Wellington Phoenix at Suncorp Stadium.
A healthy crowd of 9,398 turned up to see the new-look Glory for the first time this season and were rewarded with a first half goal to Wayne Srhoj and second half wonder strike from Adriano Pellegrino to secure the two-goal win.
The win ends a run of two losses to start the season for the Glory and is just the second clean sheet of goalkeeper Tando Velaphi's career, while the result gives the Jets a win, loss and draw from their opening three games.
The Glory started the brighter of the two teams and secured a deserved lead when Wayne Srhoj did ever so well to take a Branko Jelic pass in his stride and clear into the box and he made no mistake slotting underneath the advancing Ben Kennedy.
Newcastle's problems then worsened with Ben Kantarovski off with an ankle injury for Sean Rooney, and Fabio Vignaroli and Sasho Petrovski picking up yellow cards.
Jason Hoffman had a good chance for the Jets just before half-time, but his shot from outside the box sailed just wide. The Jets remained frustrated going into the break with Rooney and Ljubo Milicevic also earning yellow cards from referee Craig Zetter.
Momentum had swung somewhat Newcastle's way as the rain continued to fall to start the second half.
Tarek Elrich went close to scoring but couldn-t get his shot on target after a good cross from Ljubo Milicevic and header from Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
The Glory's win was sealed shortly after when Pellegrino drilled a classic strike from just inside the box past Kennedy. The cross coming in from Naum Sekulovski after brilliant lead up play from deep in their own half.
Matthew Mayora had a golden chance to score Perth's third goal shortly after with a clear path to goal with Kennedy out of position, but his rushed shot went wide.
Crowd: 9,398 at ME Bank Stadium.
A late goal from Wellington striker Chris Greenacre earned Phoenix a well-deserved point against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.
Striker Sergio van Dijk gave Brisbane the lead after ten minutes, but the Phoenix had numerous chances to equalise in the second half and their reward came when Greenacre showed terrific technique to head home a cross from Daniel in the 85th minute.
Van Dijk gave Roar the perfect start when he lashed Henrique-s cross home from close range and subsequently joined Reinaldo as Roar-s all-time leading goal scorer - a fair effort considering the Dutchman only joined the club last year.
Henrique further tormented the visitors and almost had a goal of his own in the 43rd minute when he swiftly found a paddock of space in front of New Zealand international Tony Lochhead, but failed to beat Paston.
The match was one of two very different halves - the Roar had a mortgage on possession in the first stanza, created countless genuine opportunities and Roar custodian Liam Reddy was rarely called into action.
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert must have had some choice words with his men at the break because they looked a completely different side in the second half.
Michael Ferrante was given a golden opportunity to level the scores in the 48th minute when he was given a clear shot at goal from 6 metres, but fired wildly over the top of the crossbar.
The chances continued to flow thick and fast.
Reddy was able to negotiate strong headers from Vince Lia and Greenacre but could do little to stop Greenacre-s next effort after a brilliant cross from Daniel.
The drama-packed contest continued to bubble, with Tommy Oar sent from the ground by referee Chris Beath in the 88th minute after collecting two yellow cards for rash challenges in the space of two minutes.
Crowd: 7, 084 at Suncorp Stadium