Perth Glory have taken their first win since January with a 3-1 victory in a tense clash with Macarthur FC at HBF Park.
Luke Vickery brought Macarthur back level after Nicholas Pennington’s opener, before Gabriel Popović and Arion Sulemani pulled Perth back in front.
Luke Brattan was shown a straight red card after just three minutes when he was judged to have left his boot high in a challenge on Pennington, but VAR intervened to spare the Macarthur captain and have it downgraded to a yellow card.
Perth Glory had the brighter chances throughout the first half, with Pennington combining well with Jaiden Kucharski and Sebastian Despotovski up front, but they couldn’t find a route to goal.
Macarthur were saved by VAR once again on the stroke of half time, overturning the penalty given to Perth when Liam Rose was judged to have handled the ball in the penalty area.
Perth finally got their breakthrough early in the second half when Pennington slammed home the loose ball after a crucial touch from Despotovski to take it away from the Macarthur defenders.
Vickery brought Macarthur back level with a venomous shot from outside the area that Glory keeper Matthew Sutton got a firm hand to, but couldn’t deny the Bulls substitute.
Perth hit the front once again when Stefan Colakovski’s cross curved in perfectly for Popović to nod in at the back post for his first ever Isuzu UTE A-League goal.
There was a late flash point when Popović took exception to Tomislav Uškok’s late challenge on him, provoking players from both sides to get involved.
Sulemani then scored his first ever Isuzu UTE A-League goal in stoppage time with cool finish in off the post to seal the three points for the Glory.
The loss for Macarthur sees them fall four points behind sixth-placed Melbourne City with just two rounds left to play.
Perth now head over to Sydney for a match against Sydney FC next Saturday, while Macarthur travel to Adelaide for their second away game in a row.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Perth Glory goal: Pennington 48′
Macarthur FC goal: Vickery 68′
Perth Glory goal: Popović 76′
Perth Glory goal: Sulmani 95′
