Glory Get the Glory

A sunny but cold day at Port Macquarie’s regional stadium with plenty of mums, dads and kids wrapped in blankets, scarves and the jumpers grandma knitted, creating a family atmosphere around the ground. The next generation of football fans, some probably seeing their first professional game.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the stadium had recently hosted either a drag race meeting or a local ploughing competition with lumps and bumps everywhere which converted the game to a long ball competition with little excitement in the first half with Glory controlling most of the somewhat scrappy action and the referee controlling the rest of the half whistling for no discernible reason.

The second half was better with both sides getting the ball on the ground and the midfielders who had generally been bypassed were brought into the game with Glory’s Danze controlling the midfield.
But in the first 5 minutes of the half, the Rukavytsya / Harnwell partnership brought the first goal.

Glory’s Rukavytsya was showing he was the most dangerous player on the pitch with the Jets defence looking nervous every time he got the ball and he sidestepped the defenders played Harnwell in who took his cross and with only the goalie to beat, put Glory in front.

The Jets were not out of the game and had 5 good shots on goal with Glory’s keeper Velaphi working overtime to keep them out.

Towards the end of the game, Danze took an injury and was replaced by Simon Colosimo. Under difficult conditions, Danze controlled the ball, was involved in most of Glory’s action and was my Man of The Match.

This was not a good preview of either team’s future performance in the forthcoming season with the conditions dictating the style of play.

Both teams fought hard and only the Jets resilience prevented Glory from increasing the score line. Glory were the better team on the day with Rukavytsya and Harnwell, in particular, linking together up front and on today’s performance are going to cause problems for defenders in the season ahead.

Perth Glory 1
Newcastle Jets 0

Billo
Soccerhut.net