Central Coast coach Nick Montgomery was shocked that Tom Glover was in a position to play in opposition to the Mariners on Tuesday, believing the Melbourne City goalkeeper ought to have been suspended for throwing a flare into the gang on the deserted Melbourne derby.
Former Mariners keeper Glover made an important second-half save at AAMI Park to disclaim his previous membership and guarantee City held for a 1-0 win courtesy of a first-half Jamie Maclaren objective.
While being cleared bodily to play regardless of being concussed and struggling a reduce face when a bucket was thrown at him in the course of the pitch invasion by Melbourne Victory followers on the similar venue on December 17, Glover’s participation in Tuesday’s match had been doubtful as a result of if a possible ban for throwing a flare – that had been thrown in his course – again right into a crowd of Victory supporters.
However, with referee Alex King having written in his derby match report that Glover had not meant for the flare to land among the many Victory followers, an impartial match evaluation plan determined the goalkeeper shouldn’t be charged with “violent conduct” and didn’t droop him.
“It was a great save from Tommy Glover (to deny Michael Ruhs an equaliser for the Mariners),” Montgomery stated.
“He’s a very good keeper (but) how he’s playing, I’ll never know. I don’t think anyone expected him to play today after what happened last week but he did, he pulled off a great save and he saved (City’s win).
“Throwing a firework (flare) back into a crowd of people, all the talk afterwards was that he would be suspended, and I actually thought he would be.
“I don’t want people suspended, but … I had a laugh with him after (the match) and said ‘you must be the only person that can throw a firework and not get suspended’.
“If he (Ruhs) scores that, maybe we could have gone on and won the game, but we didn’t.”
However, interim City coach Rado Vidosic backed Glover, saying the MRP resolution to not droop the goalkeeper was “correct”.
“In those (MRP) situations you never know what’s going to happen, but we don’t believe that he (Glover) did anything wrong,” Vidosic stated.
“He was excellent throughout the week, he was always with the players, he only trained for the last few days with the group, but I think he was excellent today – spotless, perfect (and a) clean sheet for him.
“He’ll love that.”
Montgomery – whose personal goalkeeper Danny Vukovic additionally excelled to disclaim Maclaren from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time – additionally wished the match pushed again to a later beginning time such had been the new circumstances.
Having initially been scheduled to kick off at 5pm (AEDT), the match was moved again to five.30pm in a call made final week.
“The conditions in the first half … I don’t know why they couldn’t have pushed the game (back) a little bit later. That would have made the game better,” Montgomery stated.
