Perth Glory feared the worst when marquee star William Gallas went off in Saturday night's A-League 2-1 home loss to Central Coast but it was teammate Scott Jamieson who suffered a costly, season-ending injury.
The Glory dominated the first 30 minutes and went up 1-0 with a Jamie Maclaren goal, but things began to sour when Gallas injured a calf muscle in the 32nd minute.
Michael McGlinchey equalised for the Mariners soon after and then, with 20 minutes remaining and just after Perth had made their final substitution, defender Jamieson ruptured his achilles tendon.
The 25-year-old's injury meant the Glory had to play the rest of the game with just 10 men and their pain was complete when Mariners striker Mitchell Duke grabbed the winning goal in the final seconds for his new coach Phil Moss.
Jamieson faced surgery which will rule him out for the rest of the season and Glory coach Alistair Edwards believed the injury may also have cost him a Socceroos World Cup berth.
"He has been absolutely quality this season and he is distraught," said Edwards.
"I am one of many who believe that he was pushing for contention for a Socceroo position because he has been very consistent, and playing some great football."
As for Gallas, the 36-year-old Frenchman was making his first start for the Glory after last week's debut off the bench.
He looked good, even delivering a bicycle kick attempt on goal, before hurting his calf but Edwards was confident it was not too serious.
"Basically he trained extremely well during the week and he erred on the side of caution (in coming off)," Edwards said.
Moss had his first match as Mariners head coach following confirmation of Graham Arnold's departure for Japan.
He was relieved a plan to only make the long flight to Perth on the day of the game paid off with the win.
"The argument is there whether it improved our performance or not, but we got the result and it looks good on paper," said Moss.
"It's something the staff have been discussing for a couple of seasons and I have to give credit to Graham Arnold for coming up with the idea.
"We decided to do it a couple of weeks ago so the bookings were all made and it was too late for me to change it, but I told Arnie that if we lost it was going to be his fault or if we won it was my first big decision.
"But credit to all the staff for the calculated risk that paid off in the end."
