A-League Women: Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters full of praise for returning attacker Susan Phonsongkham

Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters has lauded Susan Phonsongkham and hailed the attacker’s fighting spirit after she scored on her long-awaited return from an ankle injury. A pivotal part of Perth’s attack for the past two seasons, Phonsongkham suffered a serious ankle injury in pre-season which has sidelined her for the entirety of Glory’s A-League Women’s campaign. But she made her return in Perth’s 3-0 Friday night win over Western United, emerging from the bench late before scoring from the penalty spot to round out the win following Kelli Brown’s brace. An emotional Phonsongkham addressed the crowd post-game, and Peters said her late goal was just reward for her hard work in fighting her way back from the ankle injury. “Her progress has been brilliant, just going about her business and then her mental strength once she was told she was right to train was very high,” he said. “Essentially, she told me two weeks ago she was going to play this game. That’s the strength of of Susan mentally, and she’s a very popular person in the group. “She gave us a lift and probably at a crucial time in the game when we needed a bit of a boost. People seeing Susan roll onto the pitch at the particular time she came on gave us a lift.” The win also marked Perth’s first clean sheet of the season, ending a 13-month barren spell without one. Peters said given the strong form of centre-backs Naomi Chinnama and Onyinyechi Zogg and goalkeeper Casey Dumont — who made a superb first-half save to keep Perth ahead — it was long overdue. “We’ve been talking about a clean sheet for a long time, and it’s really hurt us and I think particularly Zoggy and Chinnama deserve a clean sheet,” he said. “Their effort this year in every game, they’ve really worked their socks off for us and I think you could see the elation on their face at full time. “Obviously Casey’s relieved, but just the whole group, their mentality tonight was a clean sheet, and it was a bit ugly at times, but I thought we played really well at times last week and we lost. “So what would you take, an ugly win or a pretty loss? I think we’ll take an ugly win.” Peters also praised Brown after her double strike delivered her fourth and fifth goals of the season. “Just when you think that she’s not going to give you that, she gives you that and then when you think she’s going to give you that, she doesn’t give you that; she’s very unpredictable,” Brown said. “I can only imagine what the opposition thinks of it. I felt that her against Sasha Grove was always going to be a good match up for Kel and when she’s got a point to prove, she’s always a pretty strong-willed individual.”