Just over 16,000 lined the terraces of nib Stadium to see Robbie Fowler's A-League debut for Glory against his former club in a rip-roaring rollercoaster match that ended in a 3-3 draw.

But it was the result at the turnstiles that delighted Sage more than the scoreline from the match.

"The record setting crowd on Friday night, to me as owner and Chairman, was like getting a big tick from the people of Western Australia that we had built something that they could be and are proud of supporting," he said last night.

"When I took over ownership of Glory three seasons ago, I knew we had a long way to go to get back to the glory days of the NSL, when Perth Glory were the best in the league and well supported by the people of Western Australia.

"It has taken time and a considerable investment, but in my view we have built one of the most formidable playing squads in the competition, have assembled what I believe to be the best football departments in the league and boast one of the most dedicated and hard-working administration teams.

"All we needed was for the people of Western Australia to get behind us."

Friday night’s game saw the highest Perth Glory home attendance since the inception of the A-League, with 16,019 in attendance.

Despite pre-game predictions of a +18,000 crowd, Glory were still pleased as it was significantly higher than the 14,000-15,000 they had budgeted for and the number of complimentary/promotional tickets was minimal.

"It has been some time since we have seen a crowd like that at nib Stadium, in my view not since the old NSL days, with the stadium electric from well before the game right up until the final whistle," Sage said.

"We were expecting a crowd of about 14/15,000 for round one, with up to 2,000 of that being promotional/ complimentary tickets used by the A-League as part of part of important early season promotional initiatives with junior clubs.

"To achieve an attendance of over 16,000 with less than 1,000 of those being promotional tickets is significantly more than we budgeted for and hopefully sets the tone of the rest of the season.

"We also made a decision early in the week to hold back a large number of general admission tickets to ensure that if issues arose on the night with members not having their seat, we were able to adequately accommodate them, meaning that a sell-out in our mind was always going to be around the 16-17,000 mark."

In the lead-up to the game, a large number of members did not get their tickets prior to round one and a number of seats allocated to members were also unintentionally sold as part of pre-game tickets sales.

Sage added: "Despite all the positives we took out of the attendance on Friday night, I do want to apologise to those members that were affected by the ticketing issues.

"We will ensure any issues will be rectified by our second home game, when not only do we hope to once again have a bumper crowd but to also take home the three points."

Despite Glory conceding a late equaliser and only taking a point from the match, Sage believes the manner which the team played, together with the number of players to return, should see the hit winning form soon and become a team to be reckoned with in the A-League this season.

He added: "Our coaching and conditioning staff have ensured that we have team challenging the best in the competition week-in-week.

"I am confident that not only will Glory generate a strong winning culture but that we will also play a brand of football that is entertaining and enjoyable to watch."