A-League Men: Perth Glory beat Central Coast Mariners 2-0 thanks to goals from Stefan Colakovski, Adam Taggart
Alen Stajcic has secured his first win as Perth Glory coach after his side overcame reigning champions Central Coast Mariners 2-0 at HBF Park to get off the mark this A-League Men’s season.
After a goalless opening half, Stef Colakovski came off the bench again to score his second goal of the season and Adam Taggart finished the game off in injury-time after the Mariners had Angel Torres sent off for striking
Glory climbed into the top six of the embryonic A-League table after second-half goals from Stefan Colakovski and Adam Taggart secured a 2-0 win over Central Coast Mariners at HBF Park on Saturday night.
View Alen Stajcic’s post-match media conference HERE.
Colakovski capped off a sweeping move by rifling in his second goal of the season to give Glory the lead early in the second-half and after the Mariners lost Angel Torres to a straight red card, Taggart sealed the victory by beating Danny Vukovic from the edge of the box in stoppage-time.
The result ensured that David Williams, who was introduced as a second-half substitute, was able to celebrate the milestone of his 200th A-League appearance in style.
Roared on by a vocal home crowd, Alen Stajcic’s side made a purposeful start in hot conditions and could have taken an early lead had Taggart managed to get a better contact on an inviting low cross supplied by John Koutroumbis.
The Mariners responded by carving out a decent chance of their own, Marco Tulio firing in an angled shot which the recalled Cameron Cook did well to push into the side-netting.
The Glory ‘keeper was called into action again shortly before the break, this time making an alert save to foil Nathan Paull after the home defence had struggled to clear a free-kick.
Stajcic then opted to make two changes at the start of the second half and it was one of those replacements, Colakovski, who broke the game open seven minutes in.
Fellow-substitute Bruce Kamau slid a crossfield ball which just eluded Brian Kaltak and found Taggart and he in turn played a perfectly-timed pass into the path of Colakovski who placed a low shot past Vukovic.
To their credit, the Mariners responded well, with Tulio hooking a volley narrowly over the bar before Cook was called into action to parry a shot from Christian Theoharous.
And even after Torres received a red card for lashing out at Jacob Muir, the visitors continued to press, with Cook forced to produce his best save of the night to tip a stinging effort from Theoharous over the bar.
But as the tension grew among the Glory faithful in the dying moments, it fell to Taggart to put them at ease and seal the win.
Substitute Riley Warland picked out the Socceroos frontman in a pocket of space on the edge of the box and his subsequent low shot found the net, sparking wild celebrations from players and fans alike.
