Perth Glory lift Premiers Plate with 1-0 win over Newcastle Jets

Perth Glory claimed the Premiers Plate in front of their own fans at HBF Stadium with a 1-0 win over the Jets.

Perth Glory’s Dino Djulbic and Ivan Franjic celebrate the home side’s goal against Newcastle at HBF Park. Picture: Getty Images

They had to wait 14 years, but the drought is finally over for Perth Glory after they claimed the Premiers Plate in front of their own fans at HBF Park.

The West Australians claimed their first trophy in the A-League era with a 1-0 win over Newcastle Jets with two rounds to spare in the regular season.

Former Socceroo Ivan Franjic’s second-half goal was enough to seal the trophy for Glory, though the scoreline flattered a Newcastle side that struggled for the most part.

The triumph is a fitting reward for long-suffering Perth fans and especially owner Tony Sage, who has poured close to $30 million into the club since taking sole ownership in 2009. And few could deny him the unbridled joy of standing alongside coach Tony Popovic in holding the trophy aloft after the game.

For Popovic, who is in his first season with the club, it is his second Premiers Plate success after leading Western Sydney Wanderers to the prize in their debut season in 2013.

The former Socceroo has done a magnificent job with the West Australians, who have promised so much but delivered so little since the A-League started in 2005. Perth had been such a dominant force during the days of the National Soccer League.

With so much on the line for both sides, it was no surprise there was a great energy to the game from the start with neither side going to die wondering.

Realising they need to get on the front foot quickly, the Jets shaded the better of the opening 10 minutes or so, though they were helped a little by the fact Glory were likely a little nervous given what was at stake for them.

Glory did have the first chance after just four minutes when defender Dino Djulbic headed on to the crossbar but Newcastle came charging forward after that and almost had a goal out of nothing when Roy O’Donovan latched on to a long ball and lashed an audacious first-time effort from all of 30 metres out that crashed against the crossbar.

The Irishman thought he had scored five minutes later after some neat work from Ivan Vujica, who delivered a lovely ball from the left that O’Donovan turned into the back of the net before VAR intervened and the goal was disallowed, correctly, for offside.

Having dodged a bullet, Glory started to find their rhythm with Diego Castro, Joel Chianese, Andy Keogh and Neil Kilkenny causing problems, though they suffered a blow when Spanish midfielder Juande had to be replaced on the half-hour with a groin injury.

Glory thought they had a good call for a penalty in the 18th minute when Chianese fell under a challenge in the box. Again VAR got involved, this time ruling in Newcastle’s favour.

With the big crowd behind them, Perth applied enormous pressure on the visitors and it appeared only a matter of time before they would find the all-important opening goal.

Kilkenny forced Jets goalkeeper Glenn Moss into a couple of saves before Castro combined with Chianese to set up Keogh, whose shot cannoned off the crossbar to safety in the 40th minute.

The sides went into the break at 0-0 but Glory didn’t allow that to dampen their spirits as they turned up the heat even more in the second half.

It was one-way traffic as Glory lay siege inside the Jets half, and if it wasn’t Moss producing some superb saves then it was the linesman keeping the Jets in the game. Twice Perth had the ball in the back of the net only for the linesman to correctly flag offside.

But the breakthrough finally came on 65 minutes when Castro threaded a wonderful pass into the path of Franjic, who slipped his shot past Moss, much to the delight of the home fans.