Former Liverpool star Daniel Sturridge has made his most meaningful contribution of his A-League Men season to help Perth Glory to a 1-1 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers at HBF Park.
Sturridge entered Saturday night's match having made just five cameos off the bench for a total of 93 minutes.
But he made the most of his first start of the campaign, setting up Bruno Fornaroli's 18th-minute strike in front of 6893 fans.
Sturridge, who was playing his first match since tearing his groin on February 23, was replaced at halftime with Glory leading 1-0.
A low drive from Wanderers substitute Keijiro Ogawa in the 78th minute grabbed a deserved point for the visitors, who unleashed 25 shots to nine.
Sturridge was starved of possession and he never got out of third gear when the opportunity to sprint presented itself.
But his classy touches proved crucial in Glory taking the lead against the run of play.
"We scored two goals, obviously one (was ruled) offside. It's no surprise he was involved in both of them," Glory interim coach Ruben Zadkovich said.
"You can only imagine what he would be like fully fit."
The Wanderers dominated the first half, enjoying a remarkable 81 per cent possession, winning six corners to nil, and firing 11 shots to two.
But during the rare times Glory went forward, Sturridge and Fornaroli were there to show their class.
Sturridge thought he had set up the opening goal of the match in the 12th minute when his beautiful sliding pass unleashed Antonee Burke-Gilroy, who squared the ball across for Nick Fitzgerald to find the net.
Glory players were left fuming when the goal was disallowed for offside, with replays showing the call was for Fitzgerald before he was involved in the play.
Perth thought they had been robbed again when Fornaroli's beautifully curled strike from a tight angle was also ruled out for offside.
Sturridge was again the key to setting up the play, with the 32-year-old producing a series of step-overs before firing off the pass.
This time though the VAR eventually deemed Fornaroli had been onside when he received the deflected ball.
Retiring Glory striker Andy Keogh entered the field of play in the 81st minute for his final ALM appearance.
And he was in the thick of the action when he sparked a melee in the dying minutes of the match.
Keogh bowled over opponent Keanu Baccus in frustration after the Wanderers midfielder had cynically tugged the shirt of Glory striker Joshua Anasmo to stop a fast break.
After tempers were finally cooled, Keogh, Baccus and James Troisi were all given yellow cards.
The draw snapped a six-game losing streak for the Glory, while Wanderers stand-in coach Gary van Egmond, who was filling in for the suspended Mark Rudan, felt his team deserved more than a point.
"Fair play to them, they defended their box well," van Egmond said.
"But if you have that amount of possession and that amount of crosses and those amounts of shots, you need to be winning the game."
