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13Apr22
A Guaranteed Cure For Insomnia!
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix edged Perth Glory 1-0 in a rescheduled Isuzu Ute A-League encounter at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on April 13, a match which has to rank as one of the worst fixtures ever played in the competition!

It was dire!! Believe me when I say if you suffer from insomnia, watching this was a guaranteed cure! And with just ten opportunities of note created throughout the match, that's little surprise!

Only two of those materialised in an otherwise comatose first half. Liam Reddy pawed a Gael Sandoval drive away from the top corner in the seventeenth minute, to which Perth responded six minutes later via Joshua Anasmo's driving run, only for Oliver Sail to get to the ball first.

A brief flurry before the interval saw Reddy block a Jaushua Sotirio effort from close range, with Nicholas Pennington unable to capitalise upon the rebound. Otherwise, this match was a great advert for watching paint dry!

Whatever was in Wellington's half-time tea had an immediate effect, as they opened the scoring three minutes into the second half. Sandoval released Reno Piscopo on the left, and after checking to cross, his delivery ricocheted off James McGarry into the stride of the Mexican, who despatched a fifteen-yarder beyond Reddy to arouse the 89 fans present from their slumbers.

It briefly got the game going too, as Anasmo drew a save from Sail straight from the kick-off. James McGarry then gave the ball away, inviting Jayden Gorman to thrash a shot narrowly past the post.

Anasmo then dashed down the left in the 51st
minute before combining with Gorman, who had entered the fray ten minutes before half-time. He stood up his opponent well before delivering a low-angled drive just beyond the bows of the incoming Mitchell Oxborrow. Scott Wootton was on hand to tidy things up from Wellington's perspective.

Six minutes later, Sandoval invited McGarry to make in-roads on the left, which the wingback did in style, swerving past an opponent before stinging the gloves of Reddy, who was mightily relieved to see David Ball just fail to reach a Sotirio cross seconds later after an untimely slip by Daryl Lachman had allowed Ball to latch onto the ball and unleash the speed of his fellow striker.

Sotirio went close with a header from a Callan Elliot cross in the 68th minute, to which Perth responded three minutes later via Antonee Burke-Gilroy, whose volley fizzed narrowly past the post after Wootton had headed a Joshua Rawlins cross to seeming safety.

After this, the game rather petered out to its inevitable conclusion, Perth's bids to snatch an equaliser thwarted by a Wellington side which largely kept their bottom-placed opponents at arm's length for the remainder of a match which lifted the victors into fifth place on the table.

Perth:          Reddy; Burke-Gilroy (Vecchio, 72), Muir, Coyne, Clisby (booked, 55), (Rawlins, 56); Colli, Lachman, Oxborrow (Timmins, 72); Anasmo (Niyongabire, 72), Donnell, Ostler (Gorman, 35)
Wellington:     Sail; Surman, Wootton, Payne; Elliot (Fenton, 78), Sandoval, Pennington (booked, 58), Piscopo (Old, 62), McGarry; Ball (Waine, 62), Sotirio (Bidois, 90)
Referee:     Lachlan Keevers




2021-22