For the 2nd week running Perth Glory have let a side above them on the ladder off the hook after being 2 goals ahead.
In what must rank as the worst capitulation of the season the home side conceded 2 goals in stoppage time to let a seemingly unassailable 3-1 lead slip.
All this in favourite son's Bobby Despotovski's farewell game for the side. With just 11 minutes of the regulation 90 left, Glory were coasting thanks to the performance of substitute Magdic, who set up 1 goal with a thunderbolt off the crossbar and fired home a 2nd and Glory's 3rd following yet another Bertos assist.
The shed had started the celebrations and the party atmosphere obviously got to the players on the pitch. They obviously thought it was a Birthday party and that they had to bring gifts. Gifts is indeed what they presented to Newcastle today with all 3 goals being very poor defensive errors.
The fact that the hero of previous Glory matches in Tomich made some very bad mistakes will be a worry for Glory when they come to deciding the final goalkeeping spot.
Glory pulled the first surprise pre match with the dropping of Glavas from the squad, and indeed the first 10 minutes was very lack lustre although the oppressive heat may have played some part. In the 12 th minute Jets striker Bridge fired in a shot that was totally mis-handled by Tomich who succeeded only in blocking the ball into the area, where first to react was Carle and he duly converted to give the visitors the lead.
However glory got back on level terms in the 43rd minute when a Bertos cross was handled in the box by ex Glory man Jade North and despite getting a hand to the penalty kick Covic in the jets goal could not stop Colosimo shot entering the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Almost immediately another Tomich mistake nearly gifted Rodriguez a goal but the Glory keeper redeemed himself with a smart stop.
The keeper came to Glory's rescue again in the 51st minute after Bridges burst through but his shot was deflected away by Tomich.
At this stage Glory had already introduced Despotovski for the unlucky Micevski and at the mid point of the half Rukavytsya made way for Magdic. The latter substitution was on of the better ones as in the 76th minute the young midfielder fired in a great shot that thundered off the crossbar and Harnwell reacted quickly to bundle the rebound into the net to give Glory the lead. Just 3 minutes later they doubled that advantage and appeared to have wrapped up the points when Magdic was on the end of a fine Bertos cross and he half volleyed the ball beyond Covic to put Glory 3-1 ahead.
That should have been it, but one thing about Glory this season is that they can never be depended upon to produce the obvious. The first part was that Webster who was playing well in his defensive midfield role was substituted for Christie with just 5 minutes remaining.
In the 91st minute it was Carle with a low shot from the edge of the area that again was spilled by Tomich and yet again it was a Jets player in Griffiths who reacted first to prod the ball home and bring the score back to 3-2.
If that was not bad enough, worse was to follow with just about 5 seconds of the allotted 4 extra minutes to go when Carle fed an unmarked North inside the Glory area and he crossed the ball for Griffiths to ghost past Mark Lee and bundle the ball in for the equaliser.
It was a sad way indeed for Despotovski, who has been a fine servant to Glory for the past 10 years to bid farewell, although at least the team did not win. However the club must be alarmed at the inability of the team in the last 2 weeks to hold on to 2 goal leads. For Newcastle it is now imperative they beat Victory next Friday night and indeed a win there will guarantee them a spot in the top 4. However they will need to improve on tonight's effort.
Perth have the longest trip of the season to play the New Zealand Knights in a game of absolutely no importance and it will be interesting to see if the coach has the internal fortitude to bite the bullet and give all the young guns a chance on the pitch at the same time. This would mean starts for Vrteski, Saric, Micevski, Glavas, Madgic and Rukavytsya. Now that would be something worth seeing. However this reporter will not be holding his breath for that to happen.