A late Susan Phonsongkham winner gave Perth Glory the victory over Adelaide United on Saturday night.
Perth found themselves behind before half-time, with Dylan Holmes opening the scoring just before half-time for the visitors at Macedonia Park.
Glory responded after the break through Grace Jale – who scored her third goal of the season – before Phonsongkham fired home the winner with time expiring to preserve Glory’s perfect start to the season.
For Adelaide, it was a much improved showing after consecutive defeats to Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory, but their wait for a first win of the season stretches into the fifth round of the campaign.
Glory started strongly and had it not been for two brilliant stops from Reds keeper Annalee Grove, the home side could have easily been ahead within minutes.
Jale broke in behind the Reds defence, but was denied by Grove before she could get a shot away, with the ball then falling to Millie Farrow who had her effort denied by the Adelaide shot-stopper on the follow up.
Once again, the Glory’s new attacking duo linked up, with Jale putting it on a platter for Farrow to slide into the back of the net, but the English forward’s first goal in Glory colours was disallowed by the offside flag.
Adrian Stenta’s side began to grow into the contest as the first-half wore on, with former Glory striker Alana Jancevski forcing a smart stop from Morgan Aquino to keep the scores level.
But they would eventually be rewarded as a Jancevski corner to the back-post from was nodded back across the face of goal from Ella Tonkin, to Holmes who smashed home the opener.
Glory responded well as Hana Lowry tested Grove with a strike from distance. It was her second long-range effort denied by the 22-year-old in the first-half alone, after forcing a good save from Grove just prior to Holmes’ opener.
Epakis’ charges started the second-half strongly and brought the scores level five minutes after the restart, as Phonsongkham squared it to Jale who slid the ball under Grove who was unable to save the ball from rolling off the post and over the line.
