Perth Glory 1-3 Wellington Phoenix
by Emma Burke (8/3/24)
Above: Wellington Phoenix celebrate Michaela Robertson’s (fourth left) goal that put them 2-1 up last night. Photo: Wellington Phoenix.
Spending a whole week in Perth to avoid jet lag has paid dividends for Wellington Phoenix as they recorded their first-ever set of back-to-back wins over Perth Glory, defeating them 3-1 at Macedonia Park.
The visitors opened the scoring through Alyssa Whinham, with a close-range header that sent the ball to the bottom left corner, delivered by Isabel Cox. Whinham looked even more shocked than the Glory defence at her goal, celebrating with a look of surprised joy on her face.
The response from Perth came just before the end of the first half, after Susan Phonsongkham won a free kick near the corner flag. Hana Lowry sent the ball in with a curve that seemed to defy physics but took a final touch off Phoenix defender Michaela Foster.
With the score tied up at halftime, the game could have gone either way, however, Wellington were not going to let all that time spent in Perth be for naught.
The Nix were able to make excellent use of a turnover at the top of their defensive box, and only 17 seconds later, score an incredible team goal.
Cox played a ball through the middle of the park to find Whinham, who put in an incredible assist with the outside of her right foot to find the run of Michaela Robertson and split the Glory defence. All that was left was for Robertson to use a deft touch to put the ball into the net and regain the lead.
Wellington almost immediately found the back of the net again after an uncharacteristic error by Morgan Aquino in goal, her pass out of the box was sent straight into the feet of Cox, luckily, the Glory defence was able to rally behind their keeper, particularly Liz Anton, who made the key goal-line save.
The final goal of the evening came to Macey Fraser, a long-ranged effort from outside the box that was belted into the top left corner, well out of reach of Aquino.
This result now sees Perth winless in their last nine games, and they are still yet to win a game this year, making them look like a shadow of themselves from the first few rounds of the Liberty A-League.
Teams: PERTH GLORY (4-4-2): Aquino, Rigby, Anton, Cowart, Foletta, Phonsongkham, Lowry, Quezada, Jale, Farrow. Substitutes: James, Cain, Lawrence, Hoarau, Stonehill.
Scorer: Foster (OG) 43’.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX (3-4-3): R. Foster, Lake, M. Foster, Barry, Brazendale, Whinham, Breslin, Jaber, Speckmaier, Cox, Robertson. Substitutes: Edwards, Davidson, Fraser, Errington, Main
Scorers: Whinham 24’, Robertson 56’, Fraser 78’.
Referee: Georgia Ghirardello.
Attendance: TBC.
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