United beat Glory amid ALM finale anti-climax

DEFENDING champions Western United have grabbed a bittersweet 2-1 victory over Perth Glory in the final game of the A-league men season at HBF Park.

Western picked up the points in Saturday’s clash but it meant little to either club, who both missed out on a finals spot.

Both clubs went into the game knowing any chance of a finals appearance had gone after Wellington Phoenix grabbed a 1-0 win over Macarthur a few hours earlier to secure sixth spot.

Glory had been hoping for a Macarthur victory to give them a sniff of the finals and Western would have been hoping for a miracle, needing to make up a whopping goal difference.

But in the end, it left the two sides with little to play for except pride and bragging rights.

Glory never really bothered Western goalkeeper Jamie Young as the visitors created the best first-half chances.

“It was important for us to finish as high up as possible,” said Western coach John Aloisi. “It was a good win.

“We had a terrible start to the season but we will learn from things we could have done better.

“We showed we are a team that can go anywhere and play good football and win games.”

Steven Lustica went close for Western with a curled effort, Alessandro Diamanti, in his last game, fired in a long-range free kick that was easily dealt with by Glory goal keeper Cameron Cook and a cross skidded across the Perth area untouched.

But Cook was at fault when he let a Benjamin Garuccio shot slip between his legs to give Western the lead midway through the opening period.

Glory’s Ryan Williams watched his clever chip slip past the post before Cook saved at close range from Dylan Pierias and Jack Clisby cleared Garuccio’s shot from the rebound.

Glory equalised against the run of play on the stroke of halftime when Keegan Jelacic intercepted a poor Leo Lacroix clearance to fire home.

Five minutes after the break, Glory had a goal ruled out for offside and Noah Botic struck immediately as Western regained the lead.

Glory’s cause was not helped when defender Mark Beevers was sent off on the hour after two quick yellow cards while a penalty claim when Adam Zimarino went down was turned away.

– BY NICK TAYLOR/ AAP