While Perth could have easily racked up three or four goals with some better decision making, United were lucky to get their two - the first an own goal and the second when two Glory defenders collided leaving 'keeper Tando Velaphi stranded with Joel Porter and Shane Smeltz approaching.

"Perth deserved a point, Perth played well but do you want me to cry?" he said. "We will not apologise, we are the new kids on the block and we are leading the competition for eight weeks out of the 11."

Bleiberg agreed his men were lucky to get away with the win after an offside call denied Perth an apparent equaliser but was bullish when questioned on the incident.

"I didn't see, ask me if care. No, I don't care, and again it will balance itself out over the year," he said. "If we play against a team like Perth that play out of their skin and we still win then that's a sign of how we are going.

"In my opinion Jess Vanstratten was man-of-the-match and if your goalkeeper is your best player then that tells half of the story."

Bleiberg said his team were a victim of their own success, with performances of late failing to measure up to what is expected of his all-star team.

He added: "It's a 27 week competition, we set the bar a bit too high in the beginning because we were flying.

"First of all we proved to ourselves and everybody else what heights we can reach, then we had a freefall and now we climb the ladder again.

"Everyone wants us to apologise for not playing like Barcelona every week... we will keep that for the grand final."