Brisbane scrape through in Perth

Breaking through ... Brisbane's Thomas Broich makes a run through Perth's defence. Source: AAP

A 30-metre wonder strike from Brisbane midfielder James Meyer lifted the Roar to a crucial 1-0 A-League triumph over an injury-riddled Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Saturday night.

Brisbane entered the match on a three-game losing streak and with their finals hopes hanging by a thread.

But Meyer's low drive in the 16th minute was enough to secure a vital three points, the win lifting the Roar into seventh spot and back to within a point of the top six.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Central Coast	18	11	5	2	17	38
2	Victory	18	10	3	5	3	33
3	Western Sydney	18	10	2	6	8	32
4	Adelaide	18	10	2	6	4	32
5	Heart	18	6	3	9	-2	21
6	Newcastle	17	6	3	8	-8	21
7	Brisbane	18	6	2	10	-1	20
8	Sydney	18	6	2	10	-9	20
9	Perth	18	5	4	9	-1	19
10	Wellington	17	4	4	9	-11	16

The ninth-placed Glory have now gone six straight games without a win, but remain just two points adrift of sixth spot.

Perth almost snatched a share of the spoils in a frantic final few minutes, but Nick Ward and Ryo Nagai saw their goalward-bound attempts cleared off the line.

The Glory limped into the match missing six players from their first-choice line-up.

Midfielder Liam Miller and defender Josh Risdon were suspended, while Bas van den Brink and Dean Heffernan (back) couldn't be considered.

But the biggest losses were that of striker Shane Smeltz (groin) and skipper Jacob Burns (back), their absence leaving a gaping hole.

Brisbane were also missing a host of key players, with skipper Matt Smith (hip), Henrique (hip), Jade North, Besart Berisha (suspended) and Shane Steffanutto (suspended) all unavailable.

Glory created the better chances of the first half and both Travis Dodd and Steve Pantelidis should have put away their close-range efforts early on.

Those misses proved costly, with Meyer giving Brisbane the lead against the run of play.

Meyer's charge towards goal looked fairly innocuous at first, but his unexpected low drive beat a diving Danny Vukovic, who was furious to let in the long-range goal.

Glory had a penalty appeal turned down in the 54th minute when Chris Harold crashed to the ground after trying to squeeze his way past two Roar defenders.

And Brisbane goalkeeper Michael Theo endured some nervy moments two minutes later when he charged 11 metres outside of his box but failed to clear the ball.

Glory midfielder Nick Ward streamed towards goal.

But with only a Roar defender manning the net, Ward sent his shot high of the target.

The passage of play summed up Glory's night, with the home side left ruing a series of missed chances to square the game.

Meanwhile, the Roar announced on Saturday that they've signed Australian youth international Steven Lustica on loan until the end of the club's A-League and Asian Champions League commitments.

Lustica has been loaned to the Roar from Croatian powerhouse Hajduk Split.

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Re-live all the action, including key highlights, in our A-League Match Centre.

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