Bentleigh Greens’ dream of an FFA Cup final appearance is over after they lost 3-0 to Perth Glory at Kingston Heath on Tuesday night – but they sold an awful lot of souvlaki.

On a cool, clear spring night in Melbourne, it was Glory midfielder Nebosja Marinkovic who proved the difference.

His sublime first-half free-kick around the wall – just two days after a similar stunner against Central Coast in the A-League – was worth the price of admission.

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Marinkovic added another goal in the second half before Chris Harold rounded out the win against their semi-professional opponents.

Several hundred kilos of meat were purchased by the Victorian Premier League club of Greek-Cypriot origin, which has a reputation for some of the best souvlaki in town, to feed the capacity 3300 crowd.

Half expecting a souvlaki to come on for Bentleigh Greens in the 2nd half they’ve been talked up that much #BGvPER #FFACup

— Damien Souness (@dsouness) November 11, 2014

The queue stretched 100-deep for most of the first half, with many simply abandoning their hopes of landing some prized souva.

The gutsy souls who braved the souva queue. Some are still unaccounted for. Photo: James Willoughby.

In the end, although the Glory were too strong, few would go home with an empty feeling in their stomachs – the Greens won plenty of friends with an industrious display.

They enjoyed strong periods of possession and scoring opportunities but found themselves a level below their A-League opposition.

Despite the second-tier status of their cup opponents, Glory could not be accused of taking the game less than seriously.

Seven Perth players backed up from their win over Central Coast just 48 hours earlier, with the additional four coming from the bench.

This was not a reserves side, showing Kenny Lowe’s intent to claim a place in the inaugural FFA Cup final.

In the opening exchanges, Bentleigh yielded the lion’s share of possession but caused trouble with tricky footwork.

Jamie De Abreu and Luke Gallo impressed on the wing, with captain Wayne Wallace and Luke Pilkington in midfield doing their best to contain the Glory.

De Abreu’s cut-back to Gallo presented the Melbourne City youth player with a good chance to open the scoring on 26 minutes but he curled his half-volley wide.

Marinkovic curls his stunner around the wall. Photo: Getty

Two minutes later, Glory had their lead.

Wallace’s overzealous challenge on Richard Garcia gave Marinkovic a chance to repeat his A-League stunner from 20 yards.

Bentleigh keeper Alastair Bray gave him the target, standing well to the right of goal, but Marinkovic’s effort could hardly have been sweeter, ricocheting off the bar, over the line and into the roof of the net.

Five minutes after the break, fine work from Glory’s Irish striker Andy Keogh settled the tie.

Keogh outpaced the Bentleigh defence to latch onto a loose ball, cutting back for Marinkovic to slot home.

Two goals down, the Greens upped their effort and enjoyed a strong spell.

Luke O’Dea, Pilkington and Wallace each took turns to fire strongly upon Daniel Vukovic’s goal.

Harold’s finish on 85 minutes capped a fine night’s work for Perth, who can look forward to the final on December 16.

With AAP