Points shared in lively distance derby

Gareth Morgan

David Williams opened his account for the club with a fine header as Glory fought out a lively 1-1 draw with Wellington Phoenix in Friday’s Distance Derby clash at Macedonia Park.

Ruben Zadkovich’s side were rewarded for a strong start when former Phoenix man Williams glanced home an inviting cross from Salim Khelifi, only for the visitors to restore parity less than ten minutes later courtesy of a composed finish from Oskar Zawada.

Both sides continued to create chances after the break, Liam Reddy denying Zawada a second goal with a fine save and counterpart Oli Sail doing likewise to keep out a Jack Clisby free-kick, before Glory substitute Luke Ivanovic saw his late header clip the top of the crossbar.

While a little disappointed that his charges had been unable to secure back-to-back home wins, Zadkovich felt there was much to like about their performance against an in-form Wellington side on what was a warm night in the West.

“I thought there were a lot of positives,” he said.

“There’s a real clear identity around the way the team is moving the ball and defending and the positive for me is that that process is clear and the performance, for the most part, was very good.

“We just lacked moments of quality and cutting edge in that final third and again, there were one or two defensive lapses, one of which we got punished for.

“So there’s an element of frustration, but there’s certainly a lot of positivity and belief around the group and we feel like, on our day, we can give any team in this competition a really good run for their money.

“On another day, we could have won tonight and last week was much the same.”

IMAGE: Perth Glory FC