Perth hold on against 10-man Victory

Perth Glory kept their slim A-League finals hopes alive, beating a 10-man Melbourne Victory 2-1 to arrest their winless run.

The Glory hadn't beaten Victory since February 2019 and were in the midst of a six-game winless streak, with Sunday night's game at HBF Park a must-win to keep even remotely in touch with the top six.

Victory goalkeeper Matt Action denied Bruno Fornaroli with a sharp save in the 22nd minute and the visitors almost had the game on their terms when they received a penalty for handball two minutes later.

Perth youngster Callum Timmins had thrown his arm in front of his face when he blocked Rudy Gestede's bicycle kick.

But Glory goalkeeper Liam Reddy dived the right way to deny Robbie Kruse from the spot.

The game swung in Perth's favour in the 48th minute when Victory centre-back Nick Ansell received his marching orders for a late, studs-up challenge on Timmins.

Less than four minutes later, Perth made Melbourne pay.

Diego Castro glided past the Victory defence, played a rapid-fire one-two with Ciaran Bramwell then cut the ball back for Fornaroli to score.

In the 56th minute, Perth doubled their lead.

Fornaroli pinched the ball off Kruse and slipped it to Carlo Armiento, who found Chris Ikonomidis at the back post.

The Socceroos forward lashed home a lethal volley that beat Matt Acton at his near post.

Reddy again denied Kruse from close-range in the 70th minute but Victory kept pushing and snared a breakthrough goal nine minutes later.

The excellent Jake Brimmer released Kruse and the winger charged forward and lashed a strike off the crossbar, with Gestede on hand to bury the rebound.

Victory kept pushing but were unable to secure an equaliser.

Perth (22 points) remain 10th and nine points short of sixth-placed Western Sydney while Victory (15 points) are 11th.