Glory drew 2-2 with Newcastle Jets in a hard fought game that saw both teams each lose a player to red cards with rough tackling dominating the game. Perth Glory coach David Mitchell, who has just extended his contract this week until the end of the 2010/2011 season, was not too happy with the Jets' style of play and said he thought the opposition set out to rough up his players.
"Newcastle played a very good attractive football, but they certainly get stuck in." He said, referring to some of the players going for the man and not the ball. However Mitchell did not have any complaints with the referee as a number of yellow cards were given out for the tackles.
The first signs of the game turning into a physical battle to win came in the seventh minute when Newcastle's Jobe Weelhouse hit Nikita Rukavytsya in the face with his hand. The crowd were not happy and called for a red card along with Mitchell who jumped from his seat and raised his hands at the referee. Weelhouse who received a yellow card for the tackle did not appear to have his eyes on the ball when approaching Rukavytsya.
This style of play continued for another ten minutes with Newcastle applying aggressive tackles awarding Glory with free kicks. This continued to slow the game down but encouraged the crowd to become more involved with the game. The crowd in the shed stands were belting out chants when Glory goal keeper Tando Velaphi kicked out.
In the 17th minute Joel Griffiths scored Newcastle's first goal much to the disappointment of the fans. Griffiths was able to manoeuvre the ball around Nikolai Topor-Stanley and shoot the ball right past Velaphi.
A few minutes later Tarek Elrich took on Glory's defence and attempted to score inside the penalty box, the ball was blocked by Velaphi. At this stage of the game the Glory's defence was dismal and relied heavily on goal keeper Velaphi.
Minutes after Elrich's attempt at goal, Griffiths set up play with Matt Thompson who passed the ball back to Griffiths, who just curved the ball to the right to miss the goals. Glory's defence was in a bit of trouble, until in the 26th minute when Rukavytsya put the ball in the back of the net, evening the scores, much to the delight of the crowd who erupted with cheering.
The tackling became more aggressive towards the end of the first half with Newcastle's Adam D'Apuzzo given a yellow card for his attack on Adriano Pellegrino.
In the 39th minute Mark Milligan saw Pellegrino approaching him close to the side line and while Pellegrino was attempting to kick the ball between Milligan's legs, Pellegrino's leg appeared to have kicked Milligan in the groin. Milligan went down and Pellegrino was fouled
While attempting to kick the ball free from Mark Milligan, Pellegrino toe poked the ball between Milligan's legs and looked to have kicked Milligan in the groin. Milligan immediately dropped to the ground, much to the amusement of the fans.
Naum Sekulovski was substituted for Scott Bulloch late in the first half after landing awkwardly on his knee. Mitchell appeared to have made the wrong decision sending Bulloch in defence because after a minute on the pitch Elrich scored Newcastle's second goal. Elrich weaved between the Glory's defence including Bulloch to find the back of the net.
With Newcastle beginning the second half one goal ahead Glory quickly applied the pressure on the visitors. Harnwell attempted a shot at goal and set up a corner which Newcastle cleared.
Eugene Dadi was substituted for James Downey in the 58th minute, which forced Jamie Harnwell into defence. Dadi and Rukavytsya were partnering up forward.
A couple of minutes later Glory captain Jamie Coyne was moved to defence and in his first tackle in that position for the night, Coyne was red carded for an attack that did not warrant the referee's decision.
Even though Glory were one player down they were still applying pressure and creating some scoring opportunities. However the teams became even after Daniel Piorkowski was red carded for a sliding tackle on Pellegrino.
Adrian Trinidad's diving tactics looked to have rubbed off onto Newcastle when Bulloch managed to legally clear the ball away from Shaun Ontong, only for Ontong to stumble look up and see the umpire, then fall to the ground. Ontong was awarded the free kick up forward.
In the last minutes of the match Glory received a corner kick. The kick was crossed in and with all the players inside the penalty box Trinidad was fouled. A penalty kick was awarded and Eugene Dadi took to the penalty spot. He shot the ball in to the right side of the net and ran over to the crowd who forced the fence to fall over. But Dadi was called back to the penalty spot to take the kick again. It is believed one of the Glory players had infringed the penalty box but it did not make any difference as Dadi repeated the shot, equalling Newcastle.