A stoppage time goal on her home debut by super striker Lisa De Vanna was enough to secure a hard-fought three points for Brisbane Roar in a 1-0 Westfield W-League win over Perth Glory at Perry Park.
The match looked destined to end in a stalemate as Brisbane struggled to break down a resolute and disciplined Perth Glory outfit, but a little bit of magic from the Roar substitute with one minute left on the clock proved enough to push the home side within two points of competition leaders Sydney FC.
Proceedings opened with a battle for supremacy in the middle of the park as Perth pushed high and hard to stifle any room Brisbane sought to create through the midfield.
Brisbane had to work hard to create any openings of note, but Lana Harch had the crowd on the edge of their seats with 16 minutes gone when she turned and shot from an Amy Chapman cut back across the top of the box, but her curling effort just went wide.
Aivi Luik struck one from distance after a half clearance from the Perth defence, but her low-drilled shot was directly at Tine Cederkvist in the Perth goal.
With the game moving end-to-end, Collette McCallum was the next to threaten with a dipping free-kick from outside the box which Dumont did well to gather.
Clare Polkinghorne flashed a header across the face of goal with 15 minutes remaining in the first half and Brisbane applied the pressure in search of the opening goal.
Despite pushing hard, Brisbane was unable to find a breakthrough before the half-time break and the sides went in locked at 0-0.
The home side opened the second stanza with intent, pushing forward from the opening whistle looking for the gap in the tight Perth defence to exploit.
Perth was forced into a change on 51 minutes when Jaymee Gibbons was carried off with what looked like a serious ankle injury and she was replaced by Marianna Tabain.
Harch looked to break the deadlock in the 57th minute when she angled a shot from an Elise Kellond-Knight cross, but again Cederkvist had her angles right to smother the danger.
Kellond-Knight then had an audacious back-heeled effort saved by the Perth keeper from a Tameka Butt cut-back from the byline as Brisbane continued to pour the pressure on a packed Glory defence.
With 25 minutes left on the clock, Brisbane coach Jeff Hopkins introduced De Vanna into the action against her former club as he sought to find the key to unlock the Perth defence.
Jo Burgess did her level best to put Brisbane in the lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the clash, but her shot from distance was again well dealt by Perth-s Danish keeper.
Kerr-s pace was causing the Roar defence some trouble at the other end and two strong runs from the Perth striker ended in opportunities for the No.4 but one was easily saved by Dumont and the other went wide of the goal.
However, De Vanna was not to be denied on her home debut, latching on to a Kellond-Knight through ball to coolly slot the ball into the bottom corner to secure all three points for Brisbane.
A relieved Hopkins admitted his side was below its best in the encounter but lauded the impact of De Vanna in her 25 minute cameo.
“They came and defended pretty well and we weren-t really on our game today for whatever reason,” Hopkins said.
“The qualities we normally bring to the game, dynamic quality and that little bit of spark we didn-t really have today.
“To finish the game the way that we did, Lisa-s always likely to do that kind of thing, was some consolation.
“For her to do that against her old club was tremendous.”
Brisbane Roar 1 (De Vanna 90-+3)
Perth Glory 0
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Perry Park, Brisbane
Referee: Jacqui Melksman
Brisbane Roar squad: 1. Casey Dumont (gk), 2. Laura ALLEWAY, 3. Karla REUTER, 4. Clare POLKINGHORNE (C), 5. Brooke SPENCE, 7. Kim CARROLL, 8. Elise KELLOND-KNIGHT, 10. Lana HARCH (19. Lisa DE VANNA 65-), 11. Aivi LUIK, 13. Tameka BUTT, 14. Amy CHAPMAN (6. Joanne BURGESS 65-)
Substitutes not used: 12. Rebekah STOTT, 20. Kate STEWART (gk)
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil
Perth Glory squad: 1. Tine CEDERKVIST (gk), 3. Carys HAWKINS, 4. Samantha KERR, 5. Shannon MAY, 6. Alexandra SINGER, 7. Alexandra NILSSON, 8. Tanya OXTOBY (c), 12. Kate GILL, 13. Elisa D-OVIDIO, 14. Collette McCALLUM, 15. Jaymee GIBBONS (17. Marianna TABAIN 51-)
Substitutes not used: 11. Lara FILOCAMO, 16. Sadie LAWRENCE, 20. Kathleen WAYCOTT (gk)
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil
