Soccer: Glory yes, glorious no

Perth Glory 1 New Zealand Knights 0

Perth Glory defied the odds to score a less-than-inspiring 1-0 win over a lack-lustre New Zealand Knights in their A-League Pre-Season Cup clash at North Harbour Stadium last night.

Until a late Stuart Young strike got the visitors home, the game of little action was destined for extra time which would have brought little joy for the 1104 hardy spectators.

The opening spell produced 45 minutes of ordinary football - a couple of no better than half-chances, five corners and not much else.

Hardly a tackle in anger. No yellow cards.

The visitors, with just 13 players, and battling the effects of a long, late trip and a rushed turnaround after their loss to Sydney five days earlier, were content to keep it pedestrian.

The second half, with Scot Gemmill on for Jonti Richter and later Neil Emblen replacing Che Bunce for the Knights, began with some promise.

A corner each but again little to spark the crowd into anything but spasmodic and polite applause.

Noah Hickey ran well on the left, Dani Rodrigues again showed some promise up front and, on defence, Frank van Eijs shrugged off the switch from the central role he played a fortnight ago to left back with no problems.

Jeremy Christie, back to face his old team, was subdued in the Glory midfield while his All Whites team-mate Leo Bertos played deeper than usual on the right but, like most, found linking with front-runners Young and Mislav Saric difficult.

The deadlock was broken in the 86th minute when the Knights defence was caught square and flat-footed.

The ball was rolled to Young wide on the right of the penalty area from where he curled his shot along the ground and beyond Ivan Necevski's despairing dive before turning to celebrate a victory which will probably earn his team a home game next week and send the Knights across the Tasman.