Perth Glory and Newcastle Jets have kicked off their 2007/08 Hyundai A-League campaigns with an entertaining 0-0 draw at a windy Members Equity Stadium on Sunday.
The Glory dominated possession throughout the afternoon but failed to find the finishing touch when it counted, with Jets keeper Ante Covic pulling off a number of fantastic saves to earn his side a valuable point away from home.
However, the Jets also produced several golden chances and threatened to snare all three points but, like their counterparts, couldn't find the back of the net in a match played at frenetic pace.
The Jets gave Brazilian recruit Denni a start in the midfield and paired Mark Bridge and Joel Griffiths up front, while the Glory employed a multicultural look in attack with Ukraine youngster Nikita Rukavytsya joining Croatian Mate Dragicevic.
The first real chance of the game came in the ninth minute when Glory midfielder Billy Celeski pounced on a mistake from Jets defender Adam Griffiths and fed the ball to Rukavytsya, whose shot from close range was parried away by Covic.
The Glory suffered a major blow in the 16th minute when central defender David Tarka, who has been plagued by a devastating run of hamstring injuries throughout his career, once again succumbed to the injury and was overridden with pain as he was helped from the field.
However, the loss failed to stem Perth's attacking appetite, with Covic forced to pull off another reflex save to deny a goalward-bound flick from Rukavytsya in the 22nd minute.
Dragicevic sent a header wide a minute later before Newcastle finally fired a shot in anger when Tarek Elrich drilled a low ball straight into the waiting arms of Glory 'keeper Tommi Tomich.
Perth midfielder Naum Sekulovski shot agonisingly wide in the 41st minute, but it was Denni who should have broken the deadlock in the dying minutes of the half.
Joel Griffiths squeezed out a pass to Denni after attracting three defenders in the box, but the diminutive Brazilian slid his strike wide from 10m out with the whole goalmouth to shoot at.
The Glory continued to control possession after the restart but it was the Jets who almost stole the lead in the 56th minute when Bridge latched on to a pin-point cross from Joel Griffiths, only to spray the shot high with his lunging effort.
Rukavytsya was causing all sorts of problems for the Jets' defence but couldn't find a way past Covic, while Newcastle was starting to create chances of its own up the other end.
Bridge took on and beat Perth defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and looked to have opened the scoring when his shot scraped underneath Tomich and rolled goalward.
However, Tomich scrambled back and pounced on the ball just centimetres from the line.
The Jets held on for grim life in the final 15 minutes of the contest as Perth threw numbers forward and peppered the visitors' goal time and again.
However, it was to no avail with both sides forced to share the spoils.
Perth Glory 0
Newcastle Jets 0
Crowd: 8508 at Members Equity Stadium
