Wellington Phoenix came back from conceding twice in the first 26 minutes to hold Perth Glory to a 2-2 draw at HBF Park on October 18, as the 2025-26 Isuzu Ute A-League kicked off with the game which has become known as "The Distance Derby", even though that title is no longer accurate, given Auckland and Perth are even further apart geographically. Wellington were all over the place defensively in the early stages, and Perth weren't slow to take advantage, Adam Taggart getting in behind the visitors' rearguard just 100 seconds after referee Ben Abraham's whistle got the game under way. Five minutes later, Sebastian Despotovski - son of Perth legend Bobby - deftly sidestepped two challenges on the left before firing over a cross which Jaiden Kucharski, sliding in on the far post, only just failed to get on the end of. A further three minutes had elapsed when Josh Oluwayemi and Lukas Kelly-Heald combined to thwart the threat posed by Kucharski as he looked to latch onto Scott Wootton's ball over the top, but when the youngster next featured in a Perth attack, he was leading the celebrations in the aftermath. Despotovski and Taggart combined neatly, with the latter's lobbed pass inviting Kucharski to unleash, from the edge of the penalty area, a sweetly struck shot which Oluwayemi got his hands to, but couldn't prevent from finding the far side of the net by the base of the post in the sixteenth minute. The Video Assistant Referee denied Kucharski a second goal three minutes later after it had originally been allowed, while after Ramy Najjarine had drilled a twenty-yarder at Matt Sutton, Perth doubled their advantage in the 26th minute, this time thanks to VAR. Despotovski picked out Kucharski on the right, from where he delivered an angled ball into the stride of Taggart. Oluwayemi blocked the shot with his legs, but Lachlan Wales was first to the rebound and steered it back to Taggart, who this time made no mistake - 2-0 … eventually, for it was initially flagged as offside, only for the VAR check to confirm that all was in order. After this setback, Wellington began to get a foothold in the game. Tim Payne rattled the side-netting after new signings Najjarine and Ifeanyi Eze had combined on the right in the 31st minute, while Kazuki Nagasawa and Fin Roa Conchie combined to present another new recruit, Carlo Armiento, with the chance to reduce the deficit. Sutton blocked his effort, and was nearly caught in possession by Eze four minutes before half-time as he dallied on the ball, Wellington having launched a swift counter-attack in response to a Perth raid which saw Oluwayemi racing out of his penalty area to head clear. Alas for the visitors, the opponent who latched onto the ball was Taggart, who got the better of Alex Rufer before lashing a long-range effort towards the unguarded net. The ball beat the retreating figure of Kelly-Heald, but bounced just past the post, much to Wellington's relief. Sutton came under threat from friendly fire in the

shadows of the half-time whistle, a wayward headed clearance attempt by Trent Ostler forcing his team-mate into producing a reflex save to keep it out, then regather the ball just as it was about to roll over the line, with Conchie poised to make sure it did. Wellington missed out on this occasion, but deep in first half stoppage time, Eze gave them a lifeline with a terrific solo strike. Picked out by Nagasawa's measured pass, the Nigerian avoided the challenge of Brian Kaltak before deftly clipping the ball over Sutton from an ever-decreasing angle, with Perth's former Wellington defender Wootton unable to prevent his former club from reducing the deficit with virtually the last kick of the half. Perth began the second spell eager to restore their two-goal advantage, with Oluwayemi forced to deny efforts from Kucharski and Ostler before the hour mark, before turning a Nathaniel Blair drive round the post halfway through the half. Giancarlo Italiano's team, meanwhile, were focusing on maintaining possession, although they were producing very little with it, their only opportunity in the first twenty minutes of the second spell seeing Sutton spectacularly tip Payne's curling effort over the bar, after the marauding fullback had been picked out by Nagasawa. After Taggart's bid to make it 3-1 in the 69th minute had been foiled by the retreating figure of Manjrekar James, despite the striker having been given a start by the burly Canadian international, Wellington levelled the scores less than sixty seconds later. Hideki Ishige spread play wide to Payne, whose cross arced beyond Eze but arrived perfectly in the stride of Armiento, whose emphatic volley left Sutton beaten all ends up, and set up what should have been an engrossing final twenty minutes. Instead, it was laden with stoppages, be they injuries, substitutions, gatherings of the clans as tempers frayed … it marred the spectacle, and ruined its potential. Occasionally, some football broke out midst the mayhem, with Oluwayemi again forced into "sweeper-keeper" duties to prevent Despotovski from latching onto Wootton's ball over the top, while Armiento wasn't far away from clinching a come-from-behind win for Wellington in stoppage time. They had to be content with a point, however, as did Perth, who'll be the more disappointed of the teams, having bottled a two-goal lead in front of an opening day crowd some 7868-strong, whose own expectations would have been bolstered by the shopping spree Perth embarked upon ahead of the new season. Perth:          Sutton; Kaltak, Wootton (booked, 90), Risdon (booked, 72); Ostler, O'Neill (Freney, 46 (booked, 48)), Basinovski (booked, 53 (Pennington, 63)), Wales; Kucharski (Blair, 63), Taggart, Despotovski (Anasmo, 76) Wellington:     Oluwayemi (booked, 83); Payne (Loke, 80), Sheridan (Piper, 80), James, Kelly-Heald; Najjarine (Brooke-Smith, 71), Rufer, Roa Conchie (Ishige, 64); Eze, Nagasawa, Armiento (booked, 90) Referee:     Ben Abraham