Perth SC claimed their first Hyundai State Cup victory on Saturday at the Sam Kerr Centre when they stormed to victory over reigning league champions, Perth RedStar, claiming the title for the first time in their history.
Goals from Ruby Marshall, Ella Lincoln, Sam Mathers and Charli Wainwright cancelled out an opening strike from RedStar’s Olivia Wood to record an emphatic 4-1 win.
Going into the game, RedStar had the edge over their opponents in terms of league victories, having won two of the three encounters, and they jumped out to a lead just after a quarter of an hour when Wood finished with aplomb after playing a one-two with Reina Kagami.
At this point, Redstar were in the ascendancy with their high press restricting Perth to living off scraps up front. However, the Azzurri were undaunted by this early setback and two minutes later McAllister and Ruby Marshall combined for the equaliser to put their side back in the game.
The goal energised Perth and they started to find ways to break the RedStar press to find the ever-dangerous Lincoln up front. An illustration of their growing belief happened in the 35th minute when Mathers forced a fine save from Gabby Dal Busco in the RedStar goal.
A key turning point came in the 38th minute when Jayna Ridley’s injury led to her halftime replacement by midfielder Caitlyn Bellanca, prompting coach Carlos Vega Mena to reshuffle the team, moving Abbey Wooley into attack and Wood to a central striker role.
A bizarre moment then occurred in the 52nd minute when the sprinklers came on as Perth were mounting an attack. The players were forced to leave the pitch whilst the off switch was located and didn’t resume play for five minutes.
Understandably the players took a little time to get back into their stride, and it was Perth who then took control of the game as they started to squeeze RedStar, made more of their passes stick and began winning more of the 50/50 challenges.
Their growing ascendancy was confirmed in the 68th minute when Lincoln found some space in the box and made no mistake in making it 2-1 and then celebrating aptly with a Sam Kerr-esque backflip.
RedStar responded almost immediately when they found Caitlin Doeglas on the edge of the box, but she couldn’t keep her shot down and the ball sailed high over the bar.
Any hopes of a RedStar recovery were rendered almost impossible just seven minutes later when Mathers’ corner sailed directly into the net, sparking some joyful celebrations from the Azzurri who could now sense the cup was theirs, with the only sour note being a yellow card for goalkeeper Stacey Cavill who kicked the ball high into the stands in her excitement.
Vega-Mena brought on NZ veteran forward, Renee Leota, for Wooley in a bid to try and change the game but with Azzurri skipper, Baxter Thew, in no mood to let anything past her the odds seemed impossible for the league champions, and the icing on the cake for Perth SC was provided by Wainwright in injury time when she buried her shot from just inside the box to make it 4-1.
Thew was named player of the match and picked up the Sandra Brentnall medal for her dominant display in the centre of the defence.
RedStar coach, Vega Mena was philosophical after the game and paid tribute to Perth as well as praising his players:
“Obviously nobody likes to lose. But I’m very proud of this group of girls. It’s been a long season, we lost just two games in the league, but today Perth were better than us this time.”
Perth’s Danielle Brogan was delighted and full of praise for her team, but also paid respect to RedStar:
“I thought the first half was a little bit sketchy (and) both teams looked a little bit nervous but we came out in the second half and stuck to the game plan of putting pressure on Red Star. They’re a dominating team with such quality, particularly in the midfield, We didn’t give them a chance to turn a play and forced them backwards all the time, and then when we pinched it, we ran away (with it).”
Both teams face off against each other again in the Top Four semi-final next weekend and this result will no doubt fill the Azzurri full of confidence, but will also fuel the desire of RedStar to avoid a second defeat in a week.
It promises to be another wonderful game of football whatever the outcome.
