On a weekend where Perth Glory secured a maiden A-League Premiers Plate, it was two Perth players who achieved this week’s major milestones.
During an historic night at HBF Park on Sunday, Glory lifted the Plate after Ivan Franjic’s second-half dispatched Newcastle Jets, leaving Glory with an insurmountable lead at the A-League’s summit with two rounds of the regular season remaining.
It secured Glory its first silverware of the A-League era, with its previous title coming during the National Soccer League in 2003. It was perhaps fitting then, that a player who has transversed both the NSL and A-League reached a significant career milestone on Sunday.
The 1-0 win gave Glory’s goalkeeper Liam Reddy his 11th clean sheet of the 2018/19 season, meaning the evergreen custodian reached 100th national league clean sheets.
During his A-League career, the 37-year-old has played 275 matches for seven clubs; Jets, Roar, Phoenix, Sydney FC, the Mariners, Western Sydney and current club Glory and featured in the A-League’s inaugural match between the Jets and Adelaide United in 2005. During his NSL career, Reddy played with Sydney United and Parramatta Power.
Incredibly, despite his career longevity in Australia’s top-flight leagues, Sunday’s Plate represented the first piece of silverware Reddy had lifted.
“It’s fantastic. Eighteen years I’ve been playing and it’s the first trophy I’ve won. It’s been a long wait but it’s been well worth it.
“I’m very happy for the group of players and happy for Tony Sage the owner who’s put a lot of money into the club.
“The fans all deserve it here and hopefully now we can regroup, have a good night tonight, enjoy it and we’ve got one more to win, one more trophy to win.
Reddy’s teammate, 30-year-old defender Scott Neville celebrated the glorious occasion with his 100thA-League appearance in purple, joining an exclusive club of ten other players.
Neville joined Glory in the 2008 season, featuring in four campaigns in the West before joining Newcastle Jets and then the Wanderers. He returned to Perth in 2017, making 37 appearances to add to his previous 63 that had kick-started his A-League career.
On Sunday Neville entered the fray as a second half substitute for the eventual match-winner Franjic, to make it a century of appearances for his hometown club.
Meanwhile, Melbourne Victory’s Georg Neidermeier scored his first goal in the A-League to help his side defeat the Mariners 2-1 at AAMI Park. The towering German stooped low to head Kosta Barbarouses’ fizzing cross into the Mariners’ net in the 78th minute.
The win keeps Victory’s hopes of a top two finish alive, and comes after 15 matches for the navy blue and white.
Meanwhile in the US, the opening round of the National Women’s Soccer League served up a first ever NWSL goal for Matilda Caitlin Foord for the Portland Thorns. In the 2-0 win, Foord also supplied an assist for teammate Tobin Heath to score the game’s second.
Foord had previously completed four seasons in the NWSL without a goal – the 2018 campaign with current club Portland Thorns and with three seasons with Sky Blue FC between 2013 – 2015.
For Foord’s international teammate, Sam Kerr, it was business as usual as the prolific NWSL goalscorer and consecutive NWSL Golden Boot winner.
On her return to the US competition, Kerr latched onto a superb through ball with Japanese international and Brisbane Roar midfielder Yuki Nagasato to score in Chicago Red Stars’ opener against North Carolina. Kerr now has 60 goals in the NWSL.
