Perth Glory and Central Coast Mariners walked away goalless in an anticlimactic fixture in Western Australia on Tuesday night.
Glory and the Mariners were equally desperate to secure three points and as soon as the whistle blew, Glory sprang into action and Mariners closely followed.
The last time the two sides met was in mid-February and the points were shared in a 1-1 draw.
A call was made in the 17th minute to favour the visitors, a suspected handball from Jason Cummings was reviewed by VAR and was not enough to award a penalty to Perth.
Only moments later, Cummings made contact with Jack Clisby, who went down in the box, and a penalty was awarded this time to the home side.
Captain, Bruno Fornaroli, stood up to the spot but it was Mark Birighitti who received the applause – the keeper pulled off a sensational save to deny Perth an early goal.
Glory continued to attack, hoping to break the defence and get past Birighitti, however it ended scoreless at the break.
While a draw in Perth would do neither side any favours, substitutes began to make their way onto the field in hope of finding a goal in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Birighitti made the goal seem small after Fornaroli sent the ball wide off a Glory free-kick and it did not take long for both sides to feel the frustration of being unable to capitalise off the many chances attempted at both ends.
The Mariners defenders kept Fornaroli at bay and ultimately halting the chances of Glory breaking through with a goal.
The visitors held their end and managed to turn the play around in the final minutes, however, it was too little to late as they once again shared the points with Perth.
Perth Glory: 0
Central Coast Mariners: 0
Venue: HBF Park
Referee: Alex KING
Assistant Referees: Matthew SOUTHERN, Josh MANNELLA
Fourth Official: Shane SKINNER
Perth Glory: Brad JONES (GK), Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, Adrian SARDINERO (Daniel STYNES 55’), Bruno FORNAROLI (C), Nick FITZGERALD (Antonee BURKE-GILROY 68’), Jack CLISBY, Callum TIMMINS (Osama MALIK 73’), Joshua RAWLINS, Pacifique NIYONGABIRE (Ciaran BRAMWELL 73’), Giordano COLLI, Darryl LACHMAN
Unused Subs: Cameron COOK (GK), Darko STANOJEVIC, Aidan EDWARDS
Central Coast Mariners: Mark BIRIGHITTI (GK), Joshua NISBET, Noah SMITH (Cy GODDARD 66’), Oliver BOZANIC (C), Jason CUMMINGS (Atem DOR JOK 66’), Beni NKOLOLO, Marcos URENA (Harry MCCARTHY 83’), Kye ROWLES, Jacob FARRELL, Daniel HALL (Cameron WINDUST 79’), James BAYLISS (Storm ROUX 83’)
Unused Subs: Lawrence CARUSO (GK), Maximilien BALARD
Feature Image credit: Glen Pokorn
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