Only a late red card left an otherwise content Tony Popovic bemused after his first home win as Perth Glory coach and he sees no reason why they don't have plenty of improvement left.
Glory remain undefeated under Popovic this season starting with a draw with his old club the Western Sydney Wanderers and now a 3-2 road win over Melbourne Victory and Saturday night's 2-1 win at nib Stadium against Brisbane Roar.
It was a performance controlled by Perth for much of the contest with Andy Keogh scoring in the first half, providing the shot that led to an own goal in the second and his combination with Chris Ikonomidis was exciting.
There's every reason that will continue to improve and Popovic feels that's the case with his whole squad.
"The more the players can be on the field together, that always helps but it's more about the team. It's not about one or two individuals," Popovic said.
"The team took a big step in terms of the improvement of our play and we want that to keep going. Everyone is fit and healthy in terms of the players that played, and we know that we have players ready to come in and players who missed out today who want to play on the field."
The only scare for Glory came in the 83rd minute when a penalty was awarded to Adam Taggart against Tomislav Mrcela.
There's little doubting the penalty was there but Popovic certainly questions if it warranted the red card.
"It's a shame about the penalty and red card," he said.
"I think it's a very soft red card to get, I'm not saying it's not a penalty. It was a very, very soft red card and I'm disappointed about him being sent off for that. But then we had to be resilient and dig in and defend, and in the end we got the win."
Glory heads on the road to play Adelaide United next Sunday without Jacob Italiano, but there's a chance captain Diego Castro and striker Brendon Santalab could at least be on the bench.
"So far we are undefeated and we get two consecutive wins which is not easy to do. Now we have the challenge to try and get three," Popovic said.
"Italiano's not even close, he's not even near it. The other two, they could be but we need them to really train at full intensity and be able to get through not just one session, but three or four sessions to actually consider them. If that happens, great and if it doesn't then we need to wait another week."
Australian Associated Press
