The Glory squad, predominantly made up of young trial players, performed well against their more experienced opponents and allowed Mitchell to have a first hand look at what they could offer.

“I came here with the primary objective to see how these guys would perform against quality opponents and adapt to the system of play I’ll be looking at for next season,” Mitchell said.

“While you’d always like the results to go your way the most important thing for us as a club looking to rebuild was to have the opportunity to play against good opposition and see who could stand up to the test."

He added: “We sat down this morning and looked back over the three games and were very pleased with the application of the lads and I’m sure it will benefit Perth Glory in the future.”

Young Fremantle City striker Callum Roberts delivered Glory’s first goal of the tour with a well taken strike in the 20th minute. He was set up by the silky skills of Floreat Athena midfielder Josip Magdic who delivered a great cross to find Roberts on the back post.

That brought Perth back into the match following a highly debatable penalty which gave Guangzhou the lead 10 minutes in.

The home side were up again on the stroke of half time after another questionable free kick on the edge of the area, the tackle from Jimmy Downey drawing a yellow card, his second for the match, and Perth were down to 10 men for the second period.

Glory didn’t sit back but were undone on the counter attack after 70 minutes. Guangzhou had one of their foreign imports sent from the field in the final 15 minutes.

The Glory squad departed Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon and will arrive in Perth in the early hours of Monday morning.

Guangzhou 3 – 1 Perth Glory
Yuexiushan Stadium in Guangzhou


Glory Squad: Tommi TOMICH (gk), Mark LEE (Steve HESKETH 60’), Keith BROWN, Jamie COYNE (Sebastian PETROVICH 70’), Jimmy DOWNEY, Nick RIZZO, James ROBINSON, Andrija JUKIC (Marc ANTHONY 65’), Josip MAGDIC, Eugene DADI (Adriano PELLEGRINO 45’), Callum ROBERTS