Maclaren hat-trick powers under-fire Perth Glory to win

REUTERS - Perth Glory fans finally had something to cheer about after striker Jamie Maclaren's maiden A-League hat-trick powered them to a 3-1 victory against a 10-man Melbourne City on Sunday. Glory are now third with 47 points -- three behind leaders Melbourne Victory -- but will not feature in the playoff for the top six teams after found guilty of salary cap breaches. Victory defeated Brisbane Roar on Saturday after Mark Milligan converted a penalty at the stroke of half-time for a 1-0 win, which took them three points clear of second-placed Sydney FC who beat struggling Newcastle Jets 4-3 on Friday. Maclaren gave Glory the lead just before half-time and City lost Paulo Retre to a second yellow card. Midfielder Aaron Mooy equalised with a curling freekick in the 52nd minute but Maclaren put Glory ahead again 13 minutes later and completed his hat-trick in the 87th minute. "It's always good to score goals and when you have three chances and score three goals you'll take that all day," said the 21-year-old. "It's been very tough, probably one of the toughest weeks of my career so far but we've got a strong group of boys and we'll pull through it and it showed tonight." Glory coach Kenny Lowe thanked the nearly 6000 fans who had turned up despite a mass boycott threat. "I was just pleased for them. They are hurt as much as we are hurt, and the fact that they still came to support the boys is testament to them," Lowe said. (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)