A come-from-behind 4-1 victory over the New Zealand Knights at North Harbour Stadium has kept alive Perth Glory's hopes of making the inaugural Hyundai A-League play-offs series, as the nineteenth round of action commenced on January 19.
Nothing short of victory would suffice for the visitors in this match, and they got off to the worst possible start when the initially dominant Knights were rewarded for their early pressure in the sixth minute.
A Jeremy Christie free-kick was headed clear to Noah Hickey, who completely outfoxed Solomon Islands international Henry Fa'arodo with a splendid turn before whipping in a cross from the byline towards the far post. Neil Emblen was lurking unmarked, and gleefully headed the ball wide of Jason Petkovic into the bottom corner of the net to open the scoring.
Talk about the proverbial red rag to a bull! Scoring this early proved to be the worst possible thing the Knights could have done, as Perth wasted little time in storming back at their opponents, who have had little else but pride to play for for a number of weeks.
Nick Ward led the eighth minute raid which prised open the Knights' right flank, and had it not been for the despairing lunge of Cole Tinkler, Bobby Despotovski may well have been celebrating his eighth goal of the season.
Instead, Naum Sekulovski was left to savour his fourth of the campaign in the tenth minute. Former Knights defender Danny Hay, who earned a few boos from some of the die-hard home fans among the 3024-strong crowd whenever he touched the ball, sparked off the move which resulted in the equaliser by playing a free-kick forward to Jamie Coyne.
The fullback delivered an early curling cross in behind the Knights defence, and as they all looked on, Sekulovski, who had made a tremendous run inside from the left wing as soon as Coyne gathered possession, came steaming through and crisply steered home a first-time fifteen yard strike which left Knights' ’Äòkeeper Glen Moss standing, much like his team-mates in front of him.
A simple goal, but how quickly Perth followed it up, as just four minutes later, they took the lead. Damien Mori's shot was deflected to safety, and from Despotovski's resulting corner, struck deep to the far post, a goalmouth scramble ensued. The ball was partially cleared to Coyne, who rammed it into the back of the net from close range to put the visitors on course for victory.
At 2-1 to the good, Perth opted to sit on their advantage, inviting the Knights to try and prise them open, all the while wary that the play-off-chasing side thrive on the counter-attack.
While his flair for the unpredictable and the spectacular have earned him headlines this season, an inability to consistently produce the stock-in-trade tasks expected of a wide player - delivering accurate, quality ball into the goalmouth, for instance - have tended to overshadow Jeremy Brockie's strengths in recent weeks, and in this match, these failings were frequently exposed.
Such as in the 23rd minute, when Zenon Caravella picked out Neil Emblen's clever blindside run, and the makeshift striker laid the ball back for his dreadlocked team-mate to whip in a cross.
Kris Bright, enjoying a rare moment of freedom from the confines of Hay's back pocket - the striker was well contained by his former team-mate - was homing in on the far post, but the delivery from Brockie was poor, giving Petkovic ample time to pluck the ball from the sky and set a Perth counter-attack in motion.
On the half-hour, Perth were wrongly denied by the offside flag from extending their lead. After Sekulovski had seen his thirty-yarder deflected over the crossbar, following the promptings of David Micevski and Mori, Perth's assistant coach laid the ball back to Sekulovski, who picked out Despotovski with a weighted crossfield ball.
The striker checked inside and let fly, forcing a parried save by Moss. The rebound fell straight to Mori, however, who wasted little time in despatching the ball into the open net. But his celebrations were swiftly curtailed, however, the raised flag suggesting he had been in an offside position when Despotovski let fly. Not so, according to the replay.
Unperturbed, Perth pressed on, with Coyne letting fly from twenty-five yards in the 38th minute on receipt of a crossfield ball from Micevski. This effort flew wide of the mark, but was struck with the Knights down a man - John Tambouras succumbed to a groin injury seconds earlier, and the replacement wasn't permitted until the conclusion of this raid.
With Joshua Rose now on the park, the home team surged downfield, led by the full-of-running Noah Hickey, who was to spend the entire second half as Tambouras' replacement in a defensive role with which he isn't unfamiliar - indeed, some would say it's the role to which he is best suited!
On this occasion, however, his gallop was crudely curtailed by Despotovski, just outside the penalty area. Christie's free-kick was cleared by Jamie Harnwell to Caravella, whose shot flew over the bar.
Four minutes before the break, Perth killed off the contest with a quite glorious goal. Caravella robbed Despotovski outside the Knights' penalty area and surged up-field, with the dispossessed player in hot pursuit. Despotovski tracked down his man and promptly stripped Caravella of possession on half-way before feeding the ball square to Ward.
He spotted Sekulovski's run as the wide man cut in from the left, and measured a ball into his team-mate's stride. Without breaking it, Sekulovski executed an exquisite chip from the edge of the penalty area over the advancing figure of Moss, the ball arcing just under the crossbar and landing perfectly in the bottom far corner of the net - a quite splendid finish.
At 3-1, Perth knew the game was in the bag, and the second half became something of an exercise in patience on their part. The Knights, however, were chasing the game, but found penetrating Perth's defence decidedly difficult - indeed, they created just four noteworthy opportunities in the entire forty-five minutes.
After much probing and prodding, they finally found an opening in the 58th minute. Harnwell failed to clear a cross from the ever-industrious Caravella, which gifted Bright a gilt-edged opportunity fifteen yards out from goal. The striker's tame effort was smothered by Petkovic, and in truth, it was his easiest save of the night.
This prompted another flurry of attacking activity by Perth, a five-minute surge which saw Despotovski rattle the underside of the crossbar with a twenty-yard free-kick, seconds before Moss produced a good save low to his right to foil a Mori drive which was arrowing towards the bottom far corner of the net.
After mistiming a volley on receipt of a cross from the jet-heeled Fa'arodo, Despotovski picked out Harnwell with a free-kick, Perth's captain guiding his downward header a foot wide of the far post.
At the other end of the park, Caravella fired through the crowd from twenty-five yards after Perth failed to clear a corner. Petkovic got down well to smother the effort, one he couldn't have seen till late as it flew through a forest of legs in the penalty area.
The visitors' counter-attacking strengths were somewhat negated by the presence of Hickey in the sweeper role for the Knights, and never was this better highlighted than in the 72nd minute.
A poor free-kick by the home team near the edge of Perth's penalty area suddenly saw Despotovski releasing Sekulovski into the Knights' half at pace. He wasn't able to escape Hickey's clutches, however, the midfielder looking on as his attempt to complete his hat-trick flew well wide of the mark, the fast-closing All White having forced Sekulovski to shoot far earlier than he had intended.
After Ward and substitute Xiaobin Zhang had exchanged off-target efforts, Perth wrapped up the scoring thirteen minutes from time. Having gone close earlier, Despotovski and Harnwell tried the same routine once more, and this time, the defender's darting run into the box to meet the playmaker's free-kick left Moss and company beaten all ends up - 4-1.
With the game up, the Knights' attempts to reduce the deficit gained little reward. A late half-chance for Rose ended up in Petkovic's hands following a Tinkler cross from the left eight minutes from time, while in stoppage time, Perth's goalkeeper's poor clearance was pounced on by Caravella, who touched the ball into Emblen's path.
His curling effort cleared the crossbar, meaning Perth could embark on the return leg of the longest journey in domestic football safe in the knowledge that the three points they had earned from this match meant they are still in contention for the play-offs, with games against Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets still to play.
The Knights, meanwhile, entertain premiership champions Adelaide United in their final home game of the campaign on Saturday week, with an unusual requirement - they need a 3193-strong crowd to attend simply to break the 40,000 barrier for home attendances in the cellar-dwellers' disappointing campaign, one which has seen them score just one point on home turf so far.