Perth Glory still in box seat despite loss to Melbourne Victory

Perth coach Tony Popovic isn’t about to lose any sleep after Saturday night’s loss home loss to Melbourne Victory.

Melbourne Victory’s Keisuke Honda celebrates his goal against Perth Glory at HBF Park on Saturday night. Picture: Getty Images

His side missed the chance to take a step closer to the Premiers Plate but Perth Glory coach Tony Popovic isn’t about to lose any sleep after Saturday night’s home loss to Melbourne Victory.

The Victorians ensured there will likely be a few more twists and turns before the end of the regular season, after securing a 2-0 win at HBF Park in a result that helped second-placed Sydney FC and third-placed Victory close the gap on the competition leaders.

Sydney, by way of Friday night’s 3-1 win against Brisbane Roar, are now six points behind Glory, while Melbourne Victory are seven in arrears with just four rounds and 12 points left to play for.

Realistically, Sydney loom as Perth’s biggest danger with the two sides to meet in round 26, though the Sky Blues first have to get past Victory next week.

The West Australians, who have led the competition since round four, are still in the box seat to earn their first trophy in the A-League era and nothing is going to convince Popovic otherwise.

“That’s true, there might be some twists and turns, but if anyone told us we would be six in front with four games to go … I am sure Melbourne Victory and Sydney would have signed off on that (being six points in front) before the season started and we would as well,” Popovic said.

“We are in the position we are in for a reason. We have played very well for the whole season. If we keep up that standard then we are a good chance to get results.

“I have always maintained that we will finish where we deserve to be and even after this result, we deserve to be on top of the table. We will see what happens in the end.”

While believing there is still plenty to be played out in the next month, Popovic’s opposite number, Kevin Muscat, wasn’t prepared to read too much into the situation and whether his side had struck some sort of psychological blow. It was Melbourne’s first win in three attempts against Glory this season, though there has been very little separating the two sides.

“It is too early to say because there is still so much to play out,” Muscat said.

“In the two previous games, and this one, there were some very, very fine margins. There is nothing to be carried away with but, at the same time, I am very pleased with the way we played.

“We have Sydney next week and Sydney still have to play Perth so there will be some twists and turns, but I just want to get back home and for the team to recover well and we will go from there.”

Muscat said his side had to earn their win, which came via two set pieces — a superb first-half free kick from Ola Toivonen and a Keisuke Honda penalty in the second half.

“It was a fantastic result and very well earned against a team that has had a very good season. We knew we would have to earn anything we get from here,” Muscat said.

“I thought we played with some real courage and heart and were good for our three points.

“All three games have been fairly even but the huge difference tonight was us scoring first and that allowed us to apply pressure in the appropriate moments and I thought we defended resolutely.”

Popovic put the loss down to “one of those days”.

“We have to congratulate Victory, they got what they wanted,” he said. “But overall the performance was very good, we created numerous opportunities. It was just a day when the ball wouldn’t fall for us, wouldn’t go in.

“The keeper made some great saves and they were very desperate in their defending and we couldn’t get through.”