A-League Men: Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths sees room to grow after Tom Lawrence hat-trick in 3-1 away win

Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths believes his side still have the potential to improve in the front third after star Welsh attacker Tom Lawrence’s hat-trick guided them to a 3-1 win over Melbourne City at AAMI Park. Lawrence grabbed Perth’s first treble since Andy Keogh in 2021 as Glory secured their first away win over City in nearly five years, as they put the reigning champions to the sword on Sunday. It snapped Perth’s two-game losing streak after unfortunate home defeats to Sydney FC and Adelaide United, and Glory’s performance was borne off the back of several strong showings from the likes of midfielder Will Freney and centre-back duo Scott Wootton and Brian Kaltak. But it was elevated by the dead-eyed Lawrence in front of goal, who put Perth ahead 10 minutes in when Arion Sulemani slipped past Liam Bonetig and the former Rangers and Derby County forward slid home Trent Ostler’s cut-back. And having almost provided two assists in quick succession for Sulemani, Lawrence then doubled Glory’s lead with a superbly-placed finish in the 22nd minute. Despite City’s advances after the break, Lawrence nabbed his third late in the piece when substitute Adam Taggart’s shot was parried into his path. Griffiths hailed Lawrence’s performance as “exceptional” but did not want to put a ceiling on how good he can be. “I think he goes up on the wall now in Perth Glory headquarters. His performance was good,” Griffiths said of Lawrence. “You never know. You just don’t. He stays focused, keeps working. He’s a good human. He has a lot of talent, and the boys like him.” Lawrence has carried the burden of being Perth’s focal point going forward, with not just co-captain Taggart ailed, but also Jaiden Kucharski, Lachie Wales and Sebastian Despotovski, who have all missed multiple games. “Tags makes an assist, Tags playing half, half to his potential, maybe even 30 per cent to his potential. He’s been injured for a while, playing with an injury,” Griffiths said. “We’ve got a lot of firepower to come back into this squad. That excites me a lot nd the link up between those two (Taggart and Lawrence) really excites me as well.” Griffiths also admitted his frustrations with Glory’s second-half performance — despite digging in defensively, their coach felt they sat too deep. “We wanted to come out faster. We knew City would come out hard. The energy levels dropped in key positions, and that’s when you need to make specific changes. “We didn’t have those powerful players in the wide areas to come on and help us keep that pressure on. “Because of the 2-0 lead we naturally fell back in. It wasn’t the intent; I hate sitting in a low block. We want to attack, we want to be on the front foot. We did that in the first 30, and it was a very powerful performance.” Glory will remain in Melbourne ahead of their clash with Victory at AAMI Park on Friday.