The 1996–97 season was
Perth Glory's first season in the National Soccer League and first overall season in the top flight of Australian soccer.
Background
After a number of years of speculation around a team from Perth, Perth businessmen,
Nick Tana and
Paul Afkos put in a bid to join the 1996–97 A-League (as the NSL was known after being relaunched for the 1995–96 season) in late 1995. Arena Investments, a company owned by Tana and Afkos, had stepped in to invest in the
Perth Kangaroos IFC
Perth Kangaroos International Football Club is a now-defunct soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. Perth Kangaroos played as an overseas team in the 1994 season of the FAS Premier League in Singapore and won the league title. The team ...
after the initial investors of the
1994 FAS Premier League champions pulled out. On 1 December 1995, the name Perth Glory was announced and is considered to be the club's foundation date.
Review
Pre-season
To allow the club to prepare for their first season, the Glory were excused from participation in the
1996–97 National Cup in September and October 1996. Instead the Glory played a number of friendly matches, starting with a match against Italian team
Sampdoria
Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa.
The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...
which they lost 3–0. This was the only match that the club lost in the leadup to the season, with a series of matches against Western Australian opposition all ending in wins to the Glory.
October
The league season began with a match against
UTS Olympic at
Perth Oval
Perth Oval, currently branded HBF Park (under a sponsorship agreement with HBF Health Fund) and called Perth Rectangular Stadium for international football matches, is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western ...
. The ground was ordinarily an
Australian rules football ground so temporary seating was brought in to make a smaller arena for soccer. A crowd of 9639 saw the Glory lose 4–1 to Olympic, with
Alan MacKenzie scoring a late consolation goal.
April
The Glory entered the final round of the season needing just one point to secure a finals position. However they were defeated 3–1 by the
Melbourne Knights
Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league ...
after being reduced to ten players, in front of a crowd of 10,000 at knights stadium.
Players
Transfers
Transfers in
Transfers out
Match results
Legend
Preseason matches
League results
Statistics
Leading goalscorers
* 14 –
Bobby Despotovski
Slobodan "Bobby" Despotovski (born 14 July 1971) is an Australian soccer player who played 12 seasons in the top tier of Australian soccer. He played in National Soccer League (NSL) for Heidelberg United and Morwell Falcons before moving to Pe ...
* 12 –
Vas Kalogeracos
Player details
''List of squad players, including number of appearances by competition''
''Statistics accurate to end of
1996–97 NSL season''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 Perth Glory FC season
Perth Glory FC seasons