I find 7.30 on a Friday night an awkward time to get to a football match due to work, and it's a good thing the gates are so pee poor and parking is so easy form that point of view at least. Actually, the car park we use was quite full last night, but I think there was a ding on in a house nearby.
The sword of Damacles still hangs over our club and the Wail had reported during the week, for those with the time and patience so sift through the sporting dregs pages, that the club has changed its attitude and is appealing the Holy Twelve ranking and there were some positive rumours concerning both Parmalat and (gag) Leeds about - if we are to have a next year.
The game started exactly five minutes late as always and the STRIKERS looked very lively and were quite dominant with good movement and passing and it started to feel like our night until Glory won a corner on the right and a nice innocuous ball fell into the unchallanged outstretched arms of Corey Baldock - and he dropped it at the foot of one of the puce shirted players who didn't refuse the gift and it was 0-1. Heads visibly dropped and the balance of power became more even, but I felt we were not by any means outclassed and eventually missed a sitter which resulted in a very incisive Glory counter attack and an unopposed nodded goal from a couple of metres - 0-2. "We're going to win 3-2!" was the only appropriate song, and it looked a chance when a very nice move left the incomparable Fernando with a free glimpse of goal from just outside the box. Bottom left corner - 1-2 at half time.
We had enjoyed telling Petkovic we preferred his brother (as, indeed we had told his brother previously) and did make some enquiries about the significance of Chicken Treat. Like the Spirit in happier times for that club, Glory had a quite a group of travelling support, and good on them if they had come all the way over for the game. I think they were singing, but the acoustics made it difficult to hear them well. The one chant we felt in a position to sing was "Stand up if you've won the league" which we have and they haven't -- yet.
In the second half Perth demonstrated something that the STRIKERS have lacked most of this season. Rapid, effective counter attacking and their third goal was a real gem with about three pin point passes to players at full speed and a cool and deadly finish. 1-3 and "We're going to win 4-3!". This occurred once again after we had missed another sitter and I was beginning to hope we wouldn't create any more easy chances as we were far enough behind as it was . The game was well and tuly buried when Glory scored another beautifully placed goal 1-4, and so it remained to the end. Finally, "We're going to win 5-4" was replaced by "Always look on the bright side of life" and just a snatch of "We're sh*t, and we know we are" before Mr Breeze, who was not Mr Popular with the home crowd last night blew it up. To his credit, Kasey (with a K) did give us a wave, despite having copped a bit of good natured verbal and the players came over to the crowd too.
It was a funny night, because I didn't go home with that down feeling you get when your team has played badly. The STRIKERS did do quite well and I think 1-4 (as was 7-2 in Perth) was not a fair indication of the overall difference between the teams. That said, Perth are where they are and we where we are in the table.