Kerr and her strike partners Rachel Hill and Alyssa Mautz gave the City defence a torrid time at NIB stadium. From the start, Perth pressed City defenders and didn’t give them time to settle on the ball.

On the sixth minute, there was a warning of things to come when Lydia Williams was forced to make a smart save at Kerr’s feet.

However, Kerr gave the fans something, even more, to savour, when she took off on a wonder run and struck a superb shot into the left-hand side of the net beating the despairing dive of Williams.

City were left stunned but fought back almost immediately when their leading scorer Jasmyn Spencer forced a smart save from the Glory keeper Eliza Campbell.

The home side continued to press before Shannon May released Kerr down the left wing with a delightful ball. Kerr took it in her stride and then produced an inch perfect cut back into the six-yard box for her strike partner Rachel Hill to finish.

City are a class team though, and Elise Kellond-Knight, Yukari Kinga and the returning Kyah Simon were working tirelessly to get something going.

The closest they came was from a corner in the 41st minute when Campbell dropped the ball but Kerr (who else) was on hand to clear the danger.

The second half saw Simon replaced by Helen Caceres, but Glory were the first to attack with Hill shooting over the bar within a minute of the restart.

A foul just outside the box in the 47th minute provided an opportunity for City to try and peg Glory back and Kellond Knight did just that with a superbly struck free kick to make the score 2-1.

City were now pressing for the equaliser and coach Rado Vidosic was urging his players to be patient.

Their brief foothold in the game was lost when Hill broke free and moved menacingly towards goal. She was forced wide but managed to keep control and squared the ball back to Kerr whose shot took a wicked deflection to take it past Williams.

The game really opened up as City threw everything at Glory, but Campbell stood firm and was saving everything that came her way.

By pressing forward, City were vulnerable to the swift counter attacks of Glory, and the goal of the game arrived in the 64th minute. Just inside the City half, Kerr headed the ball onto Hill who drove on and cut the ball back to the top of the box. Teenager Leticia McKenna’s first time shot cannoned off the bar, allowing Mautz to sweep the rebound into the net to make it 4-1.

The scoring hadn’t finished there though, as City were awarded a penalty which was calmly tucked away by Kellond-Knight to bring the score back to 4-2.

But it was Glory who were to have the last word, with the front three of Hill, Kerr and Mautz combining in injury time to provide Mautz with her second of the night.

For City there are positives to take away despite the loss with Kellond-Knight and Kinga playing some great football, but there was simply no stopping the Kerr led Glory strike force tonight.

Glory coach Bobby Despotovski was happy with the win, especially as it keeps the team in touch with the leaders but felt that the scoreline wasn’t a true reflection of the game.

“Even at 4-2 the game was in the balance, if they scored another one then you start struggling,” he said.

“Last year we didn’t have a balance, we scored a lot of goals last year but we conceded a lot of goals. This year is completely different,” Despotovski said.

Melbourne City coach Rado Vidosic felt his team had played a good game and created a lot of chances, but the big difference between the teams was Sam Kerr.

“They just had a freak up front and caused all sorts of problems for us,” he said.