Perth Glory 0-2 Melbourne City
By Alyce Collett 24/1/2026
Above: Bryleeh Henry (facing) and Holly McNamara celebrate after combining for Melbourne City’s second goal against Perth Glory. Photo: via Melbourne City
Melbourne City are back on the A-League Women’s winners list after a 2-0 win over Melbourne City. City’s win came thanks to a dominance in attacking play time and a brace from Holly McNamara.
It was not long after kick off before City’s strong ball movement got them into a dangerous attacking position, with the likes of Aideen Keane and Alexia Apostolakis coming to the fore early.
The action was very end to end early, but a strong wind was blowing towards the end that City was attacking in the first half.
Things then got a further degree harder for the home side barely 15 minutes into the match when Tijan McKenna was forced from the field thanks to an injury.
Although possession wise the match did feel pretty even as it headed toward the middle stages of the first half, eventually City did find the back of the net 20 minutes in. A Danielle Turner long ball found the feet of McNamara directly in front of goal, who then chipped Perth keeper Teresa Morrissey for the first goal of the game.
The goal really emboldened the visitors, who continued to rack up the final third entries as the half progressed.
Perth did have some moments near its attacking goal, but as hard as Susan Phonsongkham was working to generating threatening attacking plays she just did not have the support around her or in helpful places.
The Glory were using a high press on City, but it was not proving fruitful because there was not enough attacking options close to goal to maximise its benefit.
As the half progressed things got a bit aggressive on the pitch, with players from both sides willing to really put their body on the line in order to further their team towards victory.
Deven Jackson started to really get herself involved in the dying stages of the first half, recording a number of shots that went very close to scoring but ultimately did not.
But ultimately McNamara’s goal would be the only one of the first half, giving City the ascendency heading into the break.
The half time stats really painted a stark picture of how City had wrestled control of the match as the half progressed.
City finished the first half with just over 10% more of the possession, and finished with seven shots in the first half compared to Perth’s one. City also finished the first half with 11 more entries into the final third than Glory recorded.
However, the Glory will be counting their blessings City were not more clinical in front of goal, with only two of the visitors’ seven shots deemed to have been on target.
The second half started in a very similar fashion to how the first half had ended, with City continuing to do plenty of attacking.
Perth Glory did finally have a really promising shot on goal, but the corner kick went narrowly too high and ultimately landed on the top of the net.
Both teams then made their first strategic substitutions at about the hour mark, but both sides took very different approaches to these substitutions.
For Perth Glory Rola Badawiya and Ella Lincoln came on for Isobel Dalton and Bronte Trew in an attempt to revitalise their attacking system.
Meanwhile the visitors did not make a like for like change, bringing on a midfielder in Shelby McMahon for a defender in Apostolakis.
City found themselves a second goal with about 20 minutes left in the match after Henry crossed the ball perfectly into McNamara in front of goal, who converted truly. To add salt to the wound for the Glory, Henry and McNamara were outnumbered in the attacking play but the Glory defenders were guarding the space more than the players, which left McNamara with plenty of space to work her magic.
The Glory did have a few bright sparks of opportunities in the late stages of the second half, but City were ultimately able to counter everything Perth threw at them.
In the end Perth’s inability to generate enough truly threating chances in front of goal proved costly in the end, as City returned to the winners list after an at times shaky run of form in recent matches.
Teams: PERTH GLORY (4-3-3): Morrissey, Sardo, McKenna, Zogg, Johnston, Wainwright, Dalton, Tovar, Trew, Phonsongkham, O’Donoghue. Substitutes: Skinner, Anderson, McAllister, Lincoln, Westaway, Badawiya.
MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Turner, Otto, Stott, Roestbakken, Apostolakis, McKenna, Jackson, Henry, Keane, McNamara. Substitutes: Barbieri, McMahon, Sarris, Wilson, Rako, Jugovic.
Goals: McNamara 20’, 72’
Referee: Georgia Ghirardello.
Attendance: 856.
Follow Impetus on social media:
@ImpetusFootball on Threads, Instagram and TikTok.
impetusfootball.org 