By Nick Taylor
Defending champions Western United have grabbed a bittersweet 2-1 victory over Perth Glory in the final game of the A-league men season at HBF Park.
Western picked up the points in Saturday’s clash but it meant little to either club, who both missed out on a finals spot.
Giordano Colli of the Perth Glory slides in to block the shot from Lachlan Wales of Western United.Credit: Getty
But the result and bottom-four finish left Glory having to play in the FA Cup qualifying round play-offs.
Both clubs went into the game knowing any chance of a finals appearance had gone after Wellington Phoenix grabbed a 1-0 win over Macarthur a few hours earlier to secure sixth spot.
Glory had been hoping for a Macarthur victory to give them a sniff of the finals and Western would have been hoping for a miracle, needing to make up a whopping goal difference.
But in the end, it left the two sides with little to play for except pride and bragging rights.
As the curtain came down on the season both sides were left wondering what could have been.
Glory coach Ruben Zadkovich, in particular, was left ruing his side’s poor away record, with just one win in their 13 away games.
He said knowing they could not make the finals had sapped energy from players before the game.
“It was an interesting vibe in the dressing room and not because the players don’t care,” Zadkovich said.
“Human emotion is a very difficult thing to harness”.
Glory never really bothered Western goalkeeper Jamie Young as the visitors created the best first-half chances.
Steven Lustica went close for Western with a curled effort, Alessandro Diamanti, in his last game, fired in a long-range free kick that was easily dealt with by Glory ’keeper Cameron Cook and a cross skidded across the Perth area untouched.
But Cook was at fault when he let a Benjamin Garuccio shot slip between his legs to give Western the lead midway through the opening period.
Glory’s Ryan Williams watched his clever chip slip past the post before Cook saved at close range from Dylan Pierias and Jack Clisby cleared Garuccio’s shot from the rebound.
Glory equalised against the run of play on the stroke of halftime when Keegan Jelacic intercepted a poor Leo Lacroix clearance to fire home.
Five minutes after the break, Glory had a goal ruled out for offside and Noah Botic struck immediately as Western regained the lead.
Glory’s cause was not helped when defender Mark Beevers was sent off on the hour after two quick yellow cards while a penalty claim when Adam Zimarino went down was turned away.
Zadkovich admitted his side were poor in the first half but described the second period as “a bit like our season”.
“The good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.
“I don’t think we had the rub of the green.
“We should have had a goal. I’m not sure why it was disallowed.
“Then, no penalty. It was a stonewall penalty. It’s not even in question. It’s clear-cut.”
Western coach John Aloisi said: “It was important for us to finish as high up as possible. It was a good win.
“We had a terrible start to the season but we will learn from things we could have done better.
“We showed we are a team that can go anywhere and play good football and win games.”
AAP
