Report by Chris Andrawes

Bayswater City made life hard for themselves with a patchy win against Floreat Athena, where the 3-0 score line did not do justice to Floreat’s performance at Frank Drago Reserve in the National Premier Leagues on Saturday.

Bayswater coach Chris Coyne was concerned with his side’s performance ahead of their Westfield FFA Cup match against Hyundai A-League side Melbourne Victory on Wednesday night.

“I think we played well for two fifteen minute bursts when we got the goals,”he said.“Hopefully we don’t do that against Victory or we could be in trouble.

“If Floreat had of got one there then we would’ve really struggled, it wasn’t a good performance whether it was the boys having one eye on next week or not I don’t know, but it was very lack-luster.”

Bayswater seemed to get off to a good start in a game that could have won them the league title, depending on Perth's result.

Striker David Heagney gave Bayswater the lead after just eight minutes, with a neat tap-in from inside the six-yard box.

Bayswater doubled their lead later in the second half through Gustavo Giron Marulanda, who was the recipient of Paul McCarthy’s good work in the box, allowing Marulanda to tap into an empty net.

After half time the game swung in Floreat’s favour as they dominated play and forced some brilliant saves from Bayswater keeper Devon Spence, who struggled throughout with a slight injury.

Floreat seemed to eventually get their reward as Jack Allen scored, but the linesman’s flag ruled it offside, much to the frustrations of Floreat coach Glenn Grostate.

“Who knows about that goal, people are saying it was a goal and that would’ve changed the game,”he said.

Grostate was otherwise pleased with his side’s effort.

“At the end of the day I’m very happy, when you come here, you’re against the best in the league and we have to realise that," he said.

“We had four or five players out, we had two reserves players starting, so at the end of the day from what we had out there and what we had on the bench, I’m more than happy."

Despite Floreat’s free flowing attacking, Bayswater put the result beyond doubt with a goal from Brian Farrell, who showed his pace as he ran past the Floreat defence before firing past the keeper.

The result was not enough to hand Bayswater the title this week, as Perth managed a 2-0 win in their game against Subiaco, but Coyne remained happy to leave it until the final week.

“I spoke to the boys about it and I’m not too concerned because I’d rather be where we are than where they are. The pressure’s on Perth and we’ll see how it goes next week," he said.

The result was also a slight confidence boost for Bayswater’s Westfield FFA Cup clash with Melbourne Victory on Wednesday night, with Coyne excited to see his players experience being the underdogs for the first time this season.

“Every week everyone’s trying to shoot us down, so it’ll actually be a nice experience for the players to go out there and express themselves and have the freedom to play free flowing football without the burden of having to win every single game," he said.

 

Bayswater 3 (Heagney 8’, Marulanda 38’, Farrell 80’)
Floreat 0
Saturday 16th August 2014
Frank Drago Reserve
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee:S. Gregory
Assistant referees: D. Cole, S. Hicks
Attendance: 100 Approx.

 

Bayswater: 1. Devon SPENCE, 3. Adam BACHIELLER, 6. Todd HOWARTH, 8. Paul McCARTHY, 9. Gustavo MARULANDA (18. James ISAIA 75’), 13. Trent KAY (5. Andy REALE 70’), 15. Brian FARRELL, 16. Jamie COYNE, 20. Sam MITCHINSON, 21. David HEAGNEY (10. Damien CATALANO 83’), 23. Chris SALDARIS
Substitutes not used: 22. Joel DRISCOLL, 14. Harry BISSETT
Yellow cards: Heagney 23’
Red cards: nil

 

Floreat: 99. Yousri GHARASALLAH, 2. Blair GOVAN (17. Mathew FRANKEN 89’), 3. Jack ALLEN (12. Nick PSANOUDAKIS 80’), 6. Cameron YORKE, 8. Bobby WILSON, 10. Aryn WILLIAMS, 13. Jordan POROPOULOUS (16. Michael RIZIDIS 80’), 14. Ludo BOI, 15. Andrew SCADAFERRO, 20. Lewis McMAHON, 33. Mark WALSH
Substitutes not used: 1. Tom DIXON, 5. Rayhaan ADOLPHUS
Yellow cards: Govan 44’
Red cards: nil