Perth Glory have come away with a 1-0 win over under-fire Sydney FC at nib Stadium on Saturday but only because of a botched offside call that led to a penalty.
Sydney came to Perth desperate for points following disappointing losses to the Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers, and more than held their own against the Glory in the warm afternoon sun, but the call in the opening minutes was the difference.
Glory attacker Ryo Nagai was clearly offside attempting to run onto a good pass from Jamie MacLaren which would have left him one-on-one with Sydney goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic.
When the offside call wasn't given, Janjetovic cannoned into the back of Nagai and caught him high, and clearly it was a penalty call.
Steve McGarry coolly slotted home the penalty in the ninth minute to give Perth the lead and the score would stay at 1-0 the rest of the afternoon.
The Sky Blues had the better of the opportunities for the remainder of the match after conceding with Marc Warren taking a shot that almost curled into the top corner, Nicky Carle having several opportunities on goal as did Richard Garcia.
Glory goalkeeper Danny Vukovic was outstanding in keeping Sydney from scoring.
Even the introduction of striker Shane Smeltz didn't see Perth create any realistic goal scoring chances in the dying stages but the home side got the job done to have won two on the trot at home while the pressure continues to mount on Sydney and coach Frank Farina.
Alessandro Del Piero came back from injury for Sydney off the bench in the 62nd minute to replace Carle, who had an outstanding creative match for the Sky Blues.
Glory coach Alistair Edwards knows his side didn't play well, but is happy to take the three points.
"On the positive side we come away with the three points but on a performance side the boys know that it wasn't great," Edwards said.
"In saying that, a lot of that was to do with how well Sydney FC approached the game and they played with a lot of desperation, and really took the game to us and unsettled us particularly in the first half."
Despite feeling Sydney played the better football, Farina was left frustrated at the bad missed offside call and at his side for not being able to find the back of the net.
"It's a bittersweet feeling," Farina said.
"I thought it was a very good performance from us and it's the second time this year I can say we were the better side on the park, but we have to take our chances.
"We created chances which we didn't take and you pay for that. In terms of the way we played, I thought we did very well. I thought we were by far the better side."
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