Glory have wings clipped as Victory stars shine in West.

Two dead ball goals by Ola Toivonen and Keisuke Honda were the difference as Melbourne Victory stormed the Perth Glory citadel inflicting on them their second defeat of the season. Glory attracted a record crowd of 17,856 partisans willing on their favourites to a win that would see them with one hand grasping the Premier’s Plate and a long-coveted first trophy of the A-League era.

Glory’s only other defeat was at home against Sydney FC, and both their title rivals will take encouragement from reducing Glory’s lead at the top of the table to six points. But while Victory and Sydney face off next week, Glory will hope to capitalise with a win on the road against bottom club Central Coast Mariners.

Two wins from Glory’s last four games, barring Sydney winning all their games with cricket scores, should be enough for the Perth side to top the league. But with Victory, Sydney and Wellington Phoenix all hitting a rich seam of form the finals series is sure to be keenly contested.

It took 25 minutes for Melbourne to go in front. Diego Castro went in for a challenge against midfielder Terry Antonis with his studs a trifle high. A booking seemed harsh for the undoubted foul, but Glory were to suffer more severe consequences from the resultant free kick 25m out.

As Victory superstars Honda and Toivonen eyed the chance, Glory ‘keeper Liam Reddy understandably set up expecting a Honda left-footed shot, like the one he’d saved in the 15^th minute. Honda’s slight feint made the illusion complete while Toivonen’s right-footed strike screamed into the bottom left corner, with Reddy getting down too late.

The Victory lead was somewhat against the run of play. Both teams were obviously intent in claiming the three points with Perth dominating possession and approach play. This pattern largely continued for the rest of the first half with a barrowload of unconverted chances falling to Chris Ikonomidis and Joel Chianese. This profligacy culminated in two gilt edged opportunities for Chianese in the closing minutes of the half. With the ball at his feet from 8m he fired straight at Victory ‘keeper Lawrence Thomas, who stood tall. Then in the 47^th minute Neil Kilkenny squared from a wide position, Chianese firing another close-range chance wide to the right.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first. Perth possession led to sustained pressure without sufficient penetration to trouble Thomas’ net.

Chianese maintained his serial offending in front of goal in the second half as his confidence seemed to visibly evaporate. Several times preferring to accept the corner when in promising situations, Glory coach Tony Popovic had seen enough when another chance went abegging after 58 minutes.

A sweetly struck Castro free kick hit the bar with Thomas beaten. In the ensuing melee the ball fell to Chianese who again hit it wide to the right from 8m.

Two minutes later Popovic brought on experienced forward Andy Keogh for the tiring Ivan Franjic, with the hapless Chianese dropping back to Franjic’s right wing-back berth.

This strategy began to bear fruit as Keogh’s introduction led to more incisive attacks and Chianese, freed from the responsibilities of target man, was causing mischief on both flanks.

But there was no way back after Honda’s hammerblow in the 67^th minute. The unfortunate Scott Neville fell foul of a VAR decision when the ball hit his arm in the box. Whether Neville was attempting to move his arm out of the way or unfairly making contact with the ball will never be known, but penalties are hard not to give in these situations and Honda made no mistake from the spot. Few of the 17,856 attendees would have expected him to.

He faced the wrath of the Shed, calmly strode up, waited on Reddy to commit, and coolly slotted home.

2-0 to Victory. It didn’t look like there was any way back for Glory and so it proved.

The Perth side have performed a few Houdini-like escapes in the latter part of games this season. But tonight Victory coach Kevin Muscat seemed to have done his homework. His back four of Storm Roux, James Donachie, George Niedermeier and Lee Broxham were stalwart in the face of the Perth onslaught.

It was a fine game to watch and both coaches rightly paid tribute to their players in the post-match press conference.

But there was a lingering suspicion that Victory won more than three points tonight. They proved that Glory are not invincible in their own patch. Points in the bag, thanks to their incredible season so far, cement Glory as overwhelming favourites to top the league and claim the Premier’s Plate. But their rivals have been watching and learning how to thwart their attacking threats.

If they are to prevail in the finals, they may have to fashion less predictable routes of converting pressure to goals.

Perth Glory: Reddy, Davidson, Lowry, Franjic (Keogh, 60’), Djulbic (Santalab, 81’); Ikonomidis, Juande (Brimmer, 72’), Kilkenny, Neville; Chianese, Castro. Bookings: Castro.

Melbourne Victory: Thomas, Broxham, Niedermeier (Deng, 88’), Donachie, Roux; Antonis (Brown, 76’), Valeri, Troisi, Honda; Toivonen, Barbarouses (Kamsoba, 86’). Bookings: Toivonen, Valeri, Antonis.