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31Jan22
Late Perth Goals Break Wellington Hearts Again
by Jeremy Ruane
Two goals in the last ten minutes allowed Perth Glory to come from behind and break the hearts of bottom-placed Wellington Phoenix 3-2 in an engrossing Liberty A-League encounter at Blacktown Football Park on 31 January.
Having come from behind to lead at the interval, it was a particularly tough result to take for Gemma Lewis' charges, who, not for the first time in this campaign, left everything they had to give on the park but still came up just short in their quest for a maiden victory.
One thing this Wellington cannot be accused of lacking is courage, and it was evident in the first five minutes in the form of Alyssa Whinham, whose pursuit of a seemingly lose cause allowed her to charge down a Morgan Aquino clearance. Thanks to the intervention of veteran Matilda Kim Carroll, she was unable to capitalise on this occasion, but the seed was sown …
Three minutes later, Hannah Jones - afforded a rare start after indiscipline ruled Mona Walker, Jordan Jasnos and Isabel Gomez out of contention for the starting line-up - swooped on a loose ball and scooted between two defenders into the penalty area, where Liz Anton, a former Football Ferns Development Programme team-mate of many of the Wellington players, was on hand to thwart her progress.
Five minutes later, Kate Taylor was forced into a hurried clearance at the other end of the park as Perth flexed their attacking muscles for the first time in the contest. The ball was directed to Deborah-Anne De La Harpe, whose cross picked out Hana Lowry. Her looping header landed on the roof of Lily Alfeld's net.
From the resulting goal-kick, Zoe McMeeken was caught out of position after losing possession, and Perth swiftly released Abbey Green into the wide-open spaces vacated by the absent right back.
Down the left she surged before picking out Sofia Sakalis with a cross which the striker hit first-time. It was going wide, but fortune favoured her, for Taylor was in close attendance, the ball ricocheting off the retreating defender's chest and between the wrong-footed figure of Alfeld and her near post - 1-0 Perth, and a real blow to Wellington just fourteen minutes into the contest.
Not that you'd know it from their reaction! Within six minutes, they were on level terms with an absolute gem of a goal. McMeeken, eager to make amends for her part in Perth's goal, pinged one forward from half-way, Chloe Knott the target.
She chested the ball down for Whinham, who spotted Grace Jale's surging run in off the left flank and duly delivered a peach of a defence-splitting pass in behind Perth's rearguard for the Football Fern to stride onto and smash home first-time over the diving figure of Aquino from twelve yards - 1-1.
Cue a good old-fashioned arm wrestle in the quest for superiority - there was next to nothing between these teams for the vast majority of the contest. De La Harpe lashed a twenty-five yard free-kick down Alfeld's throat, to which Knott responded with a corner kick right into the zone.
Aquino punched it skywards as Jale and Taylor rose high in a bid to head home, the dropping ball being cleared by a thumping clearance upfield by Lowry. It found the lone Perth player who had stayed near half-way, which is always a worry for the opposition when said individual happens to be Lisa De Vanna.
The Matildas legend instantly hit the afterburners and stormed downfield, the goal in her sights. That she never got to fire the trigger was down to the timely intervention of Mackenzie Barry, whose immense defensive display was such that you wouldn't know she'd been out for two games with an ankle injury. She didn't miss a beat all night - a terrific personal performance!
Back came Wellington, Whinham beating one on the right before inviting Jones to let fly, a 28th minute effort which Aquino grabbed greedily. Four minutes later, Barry belted a free-kick downfield which Jale flicked on for the benefit of Knott. Her volley under pressure cleared the crossbar, but her next involvement in proceedings turned the game on its head.
Six minutes before half-time, Knott gathered the ball on the left, cut inside Anton and whipped in a cross for Ava Pritchard which was plucked off her head by Aquino. The goalkeeper rolled the ball out of her area, only to realise in an instant the error of her ways.
For Knott was bearing down on her at a great rate of knots, and duly blocked the 'keeper's attempted clearance before gathering the rebound. Anton raced back to cover her, while Aquino hurtled back towards her goal, but both were beaten by the ugliest, scruffiest, miscued, wrong-footed toe-poke Knott has ever struck in her life, the ball rolling beyond them and into the net via the far post - 2-1 Wellington, five minutes before half-time.
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Perth retorted straight away, Anton pinging the ball downfield for De La Harpe to flick on into the stride of Sakalis. She got to the by-line before driving the ball into the goalmouth, where the retreating figure of Jones diverted the ball for a corner - it could just as easily have ricocheted off her into the net!
Wellington survived the resulting corner, and retained their advantage until the interval and well beyond it, despite Perth's best efforts to change the scoreline. Taylor was caught in possession by De La Harpe four minutes after the resumption of play, the midfielder playing the ball inside into the stride of freshly introduced substitute Gemma Craine, who rattled the side-netting with her first touch of the ball.
Jale led Wellington's response, drilling a shot across the face of goal three minutes later. A further four minutes had elapsed when Knott delivered a gem of a free-kick from wide on the left into the danger zone, the head of Taylor the target. Aquino punched the ball off the top of her head - a real let-off for the Western Australian outfit.
Splendidly timed tackles by Grace Wisnewski and Barry denied De Vanna and substitute Cyera Hintzen either side of the hour mark, to which Wellington responded with a slick move featuring Whinham, Jale and Jones, whose angled ball zoomed across the bows of McMeeken in the 64th minute.
Twenty minutes from time, Hintzen and Lowry combined on the right, only for the freshly introduced figure of Gomez to put off the latter. Taylor then gave the ball away following the resulting goal-kick, inviting Craine to outmuscle Talitha Kramer and fire a shot in anger.
Alfeld wasn't troubled by it, but the off-balance figure of Craine was in a mighty amount of trouble as she landed after letting fly, crying out in pain immediately. She was carted off to hospital with a suspected broken wrist, effectively bringing about a premature end to her season.
Fourteen minutes from time, Craine's replacement, Demi Koulizakis, pounced on an underhit pass from McMeeken and set sail for goal, only to be stopped dead in her tracks by a textbook block tackle from Barry - you won't see a better example of this practised art anywhere this season!
After Anton's hair had been parted by De La Harpe's 77th minute free-kick, Alfeld tipped a Lowry free-kick onto the bar as Anton clattered into the goalkeeper - referee Rachael Mitchenson would doubtless have called a foul had Aquino been the player impeded, but because it was the Wellington custodian …
In fairness to the official, she did do some things exceptionally well in this game - her exemplary handling of the booking of Mie Leth Jans for a foul which she committed two minutes before the ball went out of play to allow the card to be brandished, for instance.
It does seem, however, that when a critical incident occurs and Wellington is one of the teams involved, the referee will, almost without fail, punish the Kiwi combination no matter what - to describe it as dispiriting for Lewis and her charges is an understatement!
On this occasion, her failure to award Wellington a free-kick meant that when the ball was lobbed back into the area seconds later, Leth Jans was able to work a one-two with Koulizakis before picking out the unmarked figure of Hintzen on the far post - 2-2, nine minutes from time.
Both Gomez and Hintzen went close to scoring in the next five minutes before Perth clinched victory in dramatic fashion two minutes from time. De La Harpe hoisted a free-kick to the far post, where Hintzen was on hand to turn the ball across goal and find Leth Jans, who scrambled it home from close range to regain the lead for the Western Australians - 3-2.
It was a cruel blow for Wellington, who looked to snatch an injury time equaliser through debutant Charlotte Lancaster and Wisnewski, after Knott had flicked on crosses for their benefit.
Aquino anticipated the danger on both occasions, however, while at the other end of the park, Alfeld smothered a long-range effort from Leth Jans as "The Suitcase Derby" - both teams are living long-term in New South Wales hotels due to the pandemic - drew to a close, with Perth the 3-2 victors.
Perth: Aquino; Rigby, Anton, Carroll, Green (Hintzen, 58 (booked, 90)); Lawrence, Lowry, Leth Jans (booked, 36); De La Harpe, Sakalis (Craine, 46 (Koulizakis, 74)), De Vanna (Cain, 74)
Wellington: Alfeld; McMeeken, Barry, Taylor, Kramer; Whinham (Vosper, 78), Jones (booked, 45) (Gomez, 66), Wisnewski; Pritchard (Lancaster, 89), Knott, Jale
Referee: Rachael Mitchenson
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