A-League Women: Injury-time stunner from Alana Murphy gives Melbourne Victory 1-0 win over Perth Glory

An injury-time howitzer from Alana Murphy has broken Perth Glory’s hearts as Melbourne Victory left it late to claim a 1-0 win in their A-League Women’s clash at Sam Kerr Football Centre. The game looked to be heading for a fourth consecutive draw between the two sides, with Perth frustrating Victory for most of the game. Casey Dumont was set to be the hero in her milestone 150th game as she saved a second-half penalty against her former side, as a resolute Perth defence stood strong as they prevented Melbourne from converting posessional advantage into scoring chances. But Murphy’s superb long-range effort stole all three points for the visitors as a crestfallen Glory wondered what could have been. “It’s frustrating, because it was probably the first time we let the, pull the trigger from there,” Glory coach Stephen Peters said. “I thought we were really good value at sopping those all game. I thought defensively, we were really good. “The opportunity was there for us, I think we looked fitter and I don’t think we managed the territory quite well.” The loss dashed Perth’s hopes of a first clean sheet of the season and left them in 11th spot — but still well within striking range of the top six after their first five games of the season. A returning Kelli Brown and Nikki Flannery traded early attempts on target, but it was the visitors who dominated most of the early play and possession. But as the first-half progressed, Perth slowly built their confidence and grew into the game, not allowing Melbourne to dictate play as they had in the opening 15 minutes. Isobel Dalton almost put the Glory ahead after Tijan McKenna initiated a wonderful team move which ended in Megan Wynne’s low cross being turned over the bar by the skipper on the stretch. Dumont pushed away a dangerous in-swinging free-kick with numerous Victory players lurking, before another well-worked Perth move, this time down the left, ended in Sarah O’Donoghue poking wide as the two sides entered the break goalless. Both teams found chances hard to come by in the opening stages of the second half, with Flannery hitting the side-netting for Victory, before Brown shot over up the other end. It was Perth who would have been the happier team with how the half was playing out as they began to control possession more and more, but the game threatened to tilt in Victory’s favour when Onyinyechi Zogg’s hand connected with a corner and referee Mikayla Ryan pointed to the spot. However, in her milestone game, Dumont came to the rescue, guessing right and comfortably saving Lowe’s penalty. It looked to be enough for a deserved Perth point, but minutes into injury time, Murphy’s first-time shot from well outside the box evaded a sea of legs and nestled in the bottom corner of the net.