Bruno Fornaroli the hero as Perth Glory cruise past Melbourne City

Mark Witte#497489#51B ED/Getty Images

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Bruno Fornaroli was the hero against his former club, as Perth jumped off the bottom of the A-League table with a 3-0 win over Melbourne City at AAMI Park.

Fornaroli headed home in the 27th minute, Harrison Delbridge scored an own goal in the 47th and Tomislav Mrcela rounded out Friday night's victory with a fine header in the 71st, catapulting the Glory to sixth in the table -- albeit with four games this round still to be played.

"I thought it was a great reward for them because they've been playing well without reward," Glory coach Tony Popovic said.

"We were here last week (against Melbourne Victory), we watched a good performance by us last week without a result and just shows that the players believe and today they were better than last week. "We looked strong defensively, I thought we didn't really give any clear chances away to a very good attacking team and that completes the game."

City started the brighter of the two teams but despite controlling possession, rarely made inroads in attack and lacked fluency. Jamie Maclaren had just two decent chances in the opening half -- sending one flick over the bar in the fourth minute and a shot into Liam Reddy's arms in the 15th.

Two minutes later, the Glory almost profited after a disastrous moment from City goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, when he attempted to play out from the back but turned it over to Diego Castro, who arguably should have done better as he put his shot off target.

Against the run of play, it fell to Fornaroli to open the scoring in the 27th minute. Juande had a strike ricochet aerially off Connor Metcalfe and Delbridge failed to deal with Fornaroli, who outmuscled the defender and powered a header past Bouzanis. The former City captain had a muted celebration but was mobbed by his teammates.

Perth doubled their lead in the 47th minute through a Harrison Delbridge own goal. Neil Kilkenny found Castro, who cut the ball back to Gregory Wuthrich with the defender launching a low, long-range shot. In attempting to block the ball, Delbridge instead cut it into his own net.

In the 71st minute, Tomislav Mrcela, on his return from injury, made it 3-0. Kilkenny played a one-two with Fornaroli and whipped a ball to the back post, from where Mrcela towered over Delbridge and buried a superb header.

Metcalfe looked to have pulled back a consolation goal in the 79th minute but his left-footed strike was ruled out by the offside flag, with City suffering their first goalless performance since round one's Melbourne derby.

Fornaroli departed the game in the 87th minute, leaving to applause from City and Glory fans alike, with his former club suffering their first goalless performance since round one's Melbourne derby and Erick Mombarts left to lament their failure to break down Perth's defence.

"They were organised in a defensive block, a 5-2-3. This scenario is not good because, if we conceded one first goal like that, after they had to drop and to wait to be very compact," he said.

"So in the first half, it was difficult to break but we had time to correct. "At halftime, we wanted to correct something but, as we started, we conceded a second goal, so after it was difficult."