Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix shared the spoils in their Hyundai A-League clash on 24 November, with 7,982 fans witnessing a defence-dominated 1-1 draw at the NIB Stadium. The visitors were in the ascendancy in the early stages of proceedings, although it was Perth who initially went closest to breaking the deadlock when Leo Bertos had to step in to prevent the well-performed Josh Risdon's cross from picking out Nick Ward. Wellington countered immediately, Paul Ifill sending Jeremy Brockie down the right, from where he picked out Louis Fenton with a fine cross to the far post. The youngster should have done better than to allow Danny Vukovic to parry his cushioned effort to safety. Shane Smeltz was making his first start for some time for Perth, and in the fourteenth minute he spurned the chance to put his former club to the sword when heading wide from close range, after Billy Mehmet's shot had been parried skywards by Mark Paston. From the resulting goal-kick, Wellington launched a swift counter-attack, with Manny Muscat releasing Tony Lochhead down the left. The fullback fired in an early cross which Brockie met on the volley, but he failed to direct his ambitious effort on target, much to the relief of Vukovic. Perth's 'keeper was applauding in the 22nd minute as his opposite number, Paston, produced a stunning reflex save to prevent Travis Dodd from heading home Scott Jamieson's corner at the near post. The denial earned Perth another corner, which saw Muscat head Michael Thwaite's headed effort over the bar. Wellington survived this spell before subjecting Perth to a similar series of threats from corners just before the half-hour mark. Like their opponents, they failed to breach their rival's defences, and the scoreboard remained unchanged. That situation should have changed in the 32nd minute, when Perth squandered a great chance to open the scoring. Jamieson fired over a cross to the far post which Mehmet met with a downward header rather than direct an effort on target. Ward was somewhat surprised by his team-mate's generosity, so much so that he sliced his shot on the turn well wide of the mark. The visitors produced their best attack of the half five minutes before its conclusion. Vince Lia linked with Ifill, who released the overlapping Bertos down the right. The converted fullback produced a peach of a cross to pick out Brockie, who controlled the ball then sent it sailing over the bar when far better was expected. The final act of the first half saw Jamieson on the overlap down Perth's left, the fullback picking out

Ward with his cross. Paston grabbed his volley, and found the home team far closer to his goal than to the one they were defending throughout the majority of the second spell, as Wellington opted to try to hold out for a point. Perth nearly put paid to that philosophy in the 53rd minute. Another Jamieson corner was this time headed out by Ifill to Risdon, who side-stepped a challenge before rattling the base of Paston's right-hand post from twenty-five yards. Nine minutes later, the locals enjoyed better fate, much to the delight of their fans. Risdon, unsurprisingly, instigated the attack, his ball forward being flicked on by Mehmet into the stride of Smeltz, who ran at Wellington's defence for powering home a rasping twenty-yard drive past the static figure of Paston, who made no effort to save the shot. Perth's goal was what the game genuinely needed, but it took Wellington another ten minutes to respond to this setback. When they did, Bertos saw the diving figure of Smith only just fail to reach his cross, but with Perth failing to clear their lines, another chance fell the way of the visitors, with Fenton seeing his shot blocked to seeming safety. The resulting goal-kick was thumped back downfield with interest by Bertos. He picked out Brockie, who knocked the ball over the head of Pantelidis and powered past him into the penalty area, where he coolly steered the ball home through the legs of Vukovic - 1-1, with seventeen minutes still to play. Liam Miller and Jamieson both spurned chances to curl home twenty-five yard free-kicks in the next ten minutes, after which Wellington gained the upper hand, and could have claimed all three points in stoppage time. Perth were grateful to Vukovic at this point, the goalkeeper smothering Tyler Boyd's shot between a defender's legs after the substitute had capitalised on some substandard home team defending as the final whistle drew near. When it came, it signalled honours even between two sides who had both enjoyed spells of dominance in the game, without doing enough to win it. Wellington will be the happier of the two sides, however, this rare point way out west seeing them completing this two-match road trip - they stayed on in Australia after winning at Newcastle last week - with four points to their name. Perth:          Vukovic; Risdon, Thwaite, Pantelidis, Jamieson; Dodd, Miller (booked, 90), Burns (booked, 66), Ward (Harold, 60); Mehmet, Smeltz Wellington:     Paston; Bertos, Sigmund (booked, 43), Durante (booked, 81), Lochhead; Lia (booked, 37), Muscat, Smith; Fenton (Boyd, 79), Brockie, Ifill (Huysegems, 84) Referee:     Strebre Delovski