Socceroos striker Mathew Leckie has scored the winner for Melbourne City in a VAR-dominated 2-1 triumph over Perth Glory at HBF Park.
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Scores were locked at 1-1 in Friday night's A-League Men match when Leckie rose above Glory defender Mark Beevers to head home in the 66th minute.
City goalkeeper Jamie Young pulled off a series of sharp saves after that to keep Glory at bay, with Glory striker Adam Taggart denied on numerous occasions.
Glory's fourth loss on the trot leaves them with just four points from seven games - only one point clear of last-placed Western United.
City's second win on the trot lifted them equal on points with fifth-placed Adelaide and sixth-placed Melbourne Victory.
Leckie, who missed the start of the season with a knee injury, relished his first start of the campaign.
"With my injury, that seems to be really good. I made sure I took all the time I needed to be right," Leckie told Paramount.
"My match fitness is important. I've come off the bench the last two games which has helped a lot. And this 75 minutes (tonight) was massive.
"I just need to get the minutes in.
"We had moments tonight where we were under the pump and we couldn't control the game as well as we liked.
"But the determination and the mentality of the boys got us over the line."
The first half was dominated by VAR drama as second-game referee Daniel Cook was put under the pump.
The controversy began in the 14th minute when Cook gave defender City Callum Talbot a red card after bringing down Salim Khelifi more than 40m from goal.
Cook had deemed Talbot was the last defender and therefore deserved a red card despite the light nature of the foul.
But after taking a look at the replay, Cook downgraded the card to yellow after realising there was further cover in the City defence.
Less than a minute later there was more drama when Glory claimed Leckie had handballed in the box.
Again, Cook was sent to the sidelines to check the replay, and he deemed it a handball.
Khelifi failed to convert the penalty after his powerful strike rebounded off the upright, and Glory were made to pay when the VAR went against them in the 36th minute.
This time, it showed Glory defender John Koutroumbis had grabbed the arm of Tolgay Arslan as the German attempted to latch on to a lofted pass.
Arslan nailed the penalty to make it 1-0, but a defensive howler handed Glory the equaliser on the stroke of half-time.
City midfielder Alessandro Lopane could only watch in horror as his attempted back pass to his goalkeeper was picked off by Taggart, who easily converted.
Leckie grabbed back the lead for City in the second half when he made the most of a pin-point cross from Socceroos teammate Aziz Behich, and Young pulled off some important late saves to secure victory.
Australian Associated Press
