On his 35th birthday, Andy Keogh helped himself to four goals in Perth Glory’s thrashing of the Western Sydney Wanderers.
A sensational haul of four goals including arguably the goal of the season from Andy Keogh has kept the Perth Glory’s finals hopes alive and put a major dent in Western Sydney’s recent resurgence with a 5-1 victory at HBF Park in Perth.
Capping off his 35th birthday in style, Keogh headed the Glory in front from a perfect Kosute Ota cross after just five minutes, before a strike that will go down as one of the best in A-League history.
Standing just inside his own half, the Irishman spotted Wanderers keeper Daniel Margush standing off his line and with the sweetest of half volleys imaginable he beat the scrambling shot-stopper for pace and accuracy, hitting the back of the net from 35 metres out.
Keogh’s hat-trick would come from the penalty spot after 66 minutes when Wanderers defender Patrick Ziegler was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the area.
His fourth goal was the easiest to finish of the lot though, as he tapped home a deflected cross from Chris Ikonimidis that looped into his path less than a metre out from goal.
Joel Chianese capped off Perth’s best performance of the season with the fifth goal after being played through on goal expertly by Osama Malik.
Earlier, Western Sydney striker Bruce Kamau gave the Wanderers hope of a result with a blistering strike from distance for his eighth goal of the season and sixth in his last seven games.
That was all Western Sydney had to celebrate, however, as they slipped out of the finals spots for the weekend and into seventh place with four games to go and an extra game played on some of their rivals.
The Glory sit in ninth but only three points off the top six now after being seemingly finished for the season less than two weeks ago.
BIRTHDAY BOY’S NIGHT OUT
He’s the Glory’s leading scorer in the A-League era but coming into the Wanderers clash, Andy Keogh had failed to score all season long. On his birthday he would break the drought in the best way possible with four goals including one that could well be hailed as the best of the season come the end of the campaign. He admitted post-match his knowledge of Daniel Margush’s tendency to stand off his line from his time at Perth contributed to his audacity to shoot from so far out.