MURDOCH UNIVERSITY MELVILLE 0-3 PERTH SC
By Ben Gilby
The Azzurri ran out comfortable winners at Besteam Stadium on Sunday afternoon thanks to goals from Ruby Marshall, Tamsyn Hannan, and Sam Mathers.
The Perth starting line-up showed four changes from last week’s opening round win over Fremantle City with Alanna Ottobrino, Lucy Hope, Maja Archibald, and Hannah Insch coming in for Matilda Boehm, Violet Longmore, Jess Flannery, and Louise Tana respectively.
Tom Glavovic’s side were pressing hard from the very start. Any time the hosts looked to play out from the back, they were immediately put under huge pressure which was constant, and gave MUM only rare chances to break out of their own half. Perth were relentless, calm in possession.
With nine minutes played, Daisy McAllister broke through to get one-on-one with MUM goalkeeper Kaitlyn Mohan who saved.
Just three minutes later, the visitors hit the front when Ottobrino found Marshall on the edge of the box with a perfectly judged pass that dissected the Murdoch defence. Marshall was able to advance into the box with ease and slot home with aplomb.
With a quarter of an hour on the clock, the Azzurri could have doubled their lead when Ottobrino’s high ball into the box was met with a first time volley from McAllister that went over the top.
Ottobrino was superb throughout. Her excellent vision and on the money passing was causing Murdoch Universiry Melville all sorts of headaches.
Ahead of the half hour, a golden opportunity to go 2-0 up passed Perth by as a corner came in from the right to the near post. Mohan missed her punch completely, but somehow her defenders scrambled the ball away.
There was one final opportunity before the break. Insch started a move on the left before the ball was played through seamlessly into the stride of Epril Nossent who sent a shot narrowly wide of the left hand post.
The Azzurri had created a ton of chances, showed great energy and creativity in the heat, but were just not able to transfer the possession, territory, and shots on goal dominance into a big scoreboard lead.
The second half was only 42 seconds old when the home side were reduced to 10 after an off the ball incident.
From here, MUM looked to play the offside trap that bit more often in a bid to both break the game up, and reduce the flow of Perth chances. It had limited success.
With 19 minutes remaining, Perth finally got the second goal that their dominance deserved. Marshall picked up possession on the right and fed the ball to Sam Mathers inside her who advanced and laid off a pass for substitute Hannan to fire high into the net.
Ten minutes later, it was three as Mathers’ claimed a stunning Olimpico from a corner on the right.
The Azzurri ended the game on top, and showed both ability and skill with three minutes remaining when a superb move with over 20 passes that started inside their own half, ended with a shot going narrowly over the top.
In stoppage time at the end, substitute Macey McCready showed her talent by dancing along the right and battling away to play a pass for McAllister to cross into the back post for Hannan, who saw her effort go just wide.
This victory sees Perth go top of the embryonic NPLW WA ladder on goal difference from the NTC. Next week, the Azzurri hit the road once more as they pitch up at UWA-Nedlands – a side whose opening two matches have seen a total of 15 goals.
Teams: MURDOCH UNIVERSITY MELVILLE: Mohan, Denona, Sabean, Symons, Ascenzo-Cabello, Baldin, Lawrence, Patience, Harel, Glanfield, Reid. Substitutes: Dewar, Saraceni, Betti, Harding, Baiamonte.
PERTH SC: Schroeder, Ottobrino, Nossent, McCartney, Hope, McAllister, Collins, Archibald, Mathers, Insch, Marshall. Substitutes: Warburton, Flannery, McCready, Cavill, Hannan, Longmore.
Scorers: Marshall 12’, Hannan 71’, Mathers 81’.