Perth Glory puts seven past Rockingham City in friendly win

A second-half onslaught saw A-League club Perth Glory run out 7-0 winners against Rockingham City in the clubs’ friendly at Lark Hill Sports Complex yesterday.

After a cagey first half, which saw Glory take a 2-0 lead into the break after Chris Harold and Andy Keogh capitalised on defensive lapses, the shackles came off in the second as Glory ran riot with youngster Yagoub Mustafa impressing with a hattrick.

Glory started brightly with Jake Brimmer firing a shot striaght at City keeper Cyril Sharrock within the first minute before Harold opened the scoring in the eighth minute.

From there neither side took control of the half, and despite much of the play being inside City’s half it was the home side who kept possession with the Glory’s only further chances coming from defensive errors.

Keogh saw a header saved late in the half but the Irishman was not to be denied just before the break when he capitalised on Jacob Aquino losing his footing and raced through on goal to slot the ball past Sharrock.

It became 3-0 just after the re-start when Mustafa found the net from just inside the box after coming off the bench and the substitute added his second and Glory’s fourth after being teed up by Ivan Franjic.

He completed his hattrick on 58 minutes, beating Sharrock from close range after fine approach work from Brimmer. He was denied a fourth by a fine save from City’s substitute keeper Phil Herschell.

In a rare attack for the home side, Ross Staley flashed a low shot across the face of goal on 74 minutes, but Glory had the last word with Michael Domfeh calmly converting and Zayd Farah fired in from outside the box.