THE STONE Roses once commented that “the gold road’s sure a long road”. Perth Glory received their own reminder of this over the weekend after some of their best football of the year went unrewarded on the Gold Coast.

Yes, Matthew Breeze could possibly be the worst number one referee in the world. Yes, Steve Pantelidis is a thug who thinks he's hard, but would wet himself if confronted by Chris Coyne, Andy Todd, or possibly even Jacob Burns in a dark alley. And yes, the Fox commentary team really are trying their best to make it look like Branko Jelic is offside (ooh! I think I see a little finger extended past the line of the last defender! Oh, great call linesman!)

Yet at the end of the day, Perth still had chances that they didn't take, mistakes that they shouldn't have made, and questionable tactics that confused the hell out of everyone. Taking off a red-hot Branko Jelic for Eugene Dadi for example, whilst leaving Andrija Jukic on the bench. Interesting one, that.

The Gold Road's Sure A Long Road

"The gold road's sure a long road... Winds on through the hills for 15 days..."  Or so said The Stone Roses on their late 80s classic Fools Gold. What Sunday's game showed more than anything else was that this Perth Glory side have a long way to go before they recognise their significant potential. I doubt they'll complete that journey within 15 days - but I am hopeful of it taking less than 15 months. Seems a long way to go for a toilet seat, but there you have it.

It's interesting to note that both Glory-GCU games played this year have involved two completely different halves of football. In their round six encounter, Glory played Miron Bleiberg's team off the park for the first 45 minutes, before allowing the Gold Coast side to run roughshod over them in the second and sneak a 2-2 draw. On Sunday, the first half was dire from both sides, but United edged it both on the scoreboard and during the general run of play.

The second half on the other hand was all Perth Glory. The men in purple created all the chances; including the winning goal for the home side courtesy of an unforgivable defensive blunder. After the game at ME Bank Stadium earlier this year, the always-smug Bleiberg dropped the comment that perhaps Perth weren't fit enough or young enough to last the full 90 minutes - but judging by the side's second half on the weekend, I think that's been exposed as a lot of hot air (though one can still wonder about the fitness of both Branko Jelic and Eugene Dadi). Still, the equaliser could not be found and I believe that's a fair measure of Perth's standing right now- so close, yet still so far.

I'm Standing Alone, I'm Watching You All...

While we've heard a lot about Gold Coast games from a home fan's perspective, it's interesting to see what some of the visiting Perth fans had to say about Sunday's game on the Glory fan forums:

"Well to be fair we were warned about swearing, which is shit to start with, and [this] guy slipped out a 'fuckin' and the cops came over and asked him to leave. He tried to talk his way out of it but then they grabbed him and physically removed him. If you shed boys thought you had it bad with the cops you have no idea. Anyway terrible crowd only noise came out of the small supporters group behind the goals."

"What a fucking shit hole the Gold Coast is... the place is bone dry and windy as hell. The traffic is ridiculous. All the women are leathery. There is no parking anywhere near the ground. There is no signage on where to park. There is no atmosphere in the stadium. Tickets are $31 GA... and the cops are fucking rude. To those guys who complain about ME Bank... come over here for a game. What a disgrace!"

"Good stadium. Crap to get to. Expensive tickets. No fans."

Now, I'm sure some kind of 'special attention' is paid to away fans at every football ground in Australia, but I'd like to hear the response of some of the Gold Coast fans to the above comments. Are they fair? Is your security a little over-zealous? Is travel to and from the stadium a big issue? And are all your women really leathery?

In Pieces

One more (serious) item to tackle before I finish this week's blog; the debacle that currently is a Perth Glory FC set piece. It doesn't matter whether we're attacking or defending, Glory cannot play to a set piece if their life depended on it. In round one, Glory lost by a solitary penalty, given because of illegal contact while defending a set piece. The next week, Perth lose to a deflected Leo Bertos free kick in the dying minutes. Round six sees us draw with Gold Coast because we fail to defend against a fast free kick. On Sunday, Jason Culina simply had to hit the ball into Scott Neville from outside the area, the deflected free sailing into the back of the net.

This doesn't even begin to consider the Perth side's failures offensively - can anyone name a set piece where Glory have looked threatening this year? I don't think we've actually scored from a corner or free kick, bar Branko Jelic's scrambled goal against Brisbane. Feel free to prove me wrong, but the team has certainly not made it a staple of their game.

The last home game against North Queensland Fury was a typical example of the 2009 Perth Glory set piece; Wayne Srhoj overhits a free from outside the area, ball goes out of play for a goal kick. Naum Sekulovski takes a free kick, hits the wall, ball out of play or into the keeper's arms. Victor Sikora floats pin-point ball into the box; Chris Coyne and Eugene Dadi both fall over.

Now, I'm not asking for another John Markovski, or another 'Boutsi'- I doubt it's actually possible that there could ever be anyone like Con again - but man, it would be great if Glory could actually look like they're going to do something from a set piece. It would be even better if the team looked like they could defend one, too.

Mega Flathead v Palmer-Sized Blowfish

Before I end this week's entry, I should give a shout out to fellow blogger Gary Lord, AKA GazGoldCoast, AKA "the other Gold Coast blogger", who came up with an interesting metaphor for the Glory in his blog this week:

But they are slippery fish, these Perth boys. They remind me of flathead. If you've ever caught a flathead, you know how hard it can be to put them out of their misery...

I'm sure you can read the rest of it yourselves, if you so please. I like the flathead metaphor; we aren't pretty, and we aren't glamorous. But nor do we pretend to be; and we're honest, tough to kill, and can put up a damn good fight.

Of course, for obvious reasons, Gold Coast United are the blowfish of the A-League. They can puff up their chests to sizes comparable only to their owner, but at the end of the day, they're just another scared little fish in a very big ocean. Once you've caught one and seen it up close, you don't even feel pity; just a mixture of disgust and disappointment as you throw it back as far as you can and move on to your next fishing spot.

Judging by the size of Gold Coast crowds, one wonders if many an amateur fisherman hasn't done that very thing this year.