Report by Aisling Lawless

Photos: Inglewood United

Inglewood United inched closer to the top five in the PS4 National Premier Leagues WA after they beat a young ECU Joondalup Football side 2-1 away from home.

David Micevski and Ryan Clarke both scored for Inglewood in the first half hour, while Joe Smith got one back for ECU in the second half.

Inglewood coach Michael Garcia said today was definitely an improvement on last week’s performance against Subiaco.

“A couple of mistakes we made put us under a bit of unnecessary pressure, but ultimately I think the back line’s been outstanding all season, and I’m glad they didn’t get punished for those errors,” he said.

Inglewood has a tough run of games ahead of them starting with Cockburn City, who they lost heavily to in the first game of the season.

But Garcia said they are planning to make it a very different story this time around.

“We want a bit of revenge – we weren’t at the races last time and that let us down a fair bit and started our season off badly. We’ve had to work our way up from that one game,” he said.

“But we are going to be very hungry I can assure you for next week’s game and we’ll definitely be looking for payback.”

The home side had an early chance when Josh Tucker, in his first game back from injury, crossed the ball to Jon Stynes, but his header flew narrowly past the goal.

Inglewood responded five minutes later when Abdul Sesay controlled a high ball into the box and passed for Micevski to strike home. 

20 minutes later Ryan Lowry attempted to clear a through ball to Kenny Keogh, but the ball landed for Clarke who then had a clear run on goal to double the visitors lead.

ECU fought against the deficit and had their chances. Stynes came close with another header in the 31^st minute, but was denied by a goal line clearance. 

Tommy Amphlett also had an opportunity when he forced a defensive error and took on keeper Aleks Vrsetki, but created too tight an angle and sent his shot across goal.

Smith started the second half brightly for the home side when he had his shot deflected over the diving Vrteski.

But Inglewood ultimately proved to be too strong and nearly increased their lead on 70 minutes when captain Jovo Pavlovic smashed the ball over the crossbar after a penalty box scramble.

ECU coach Dale McCulloch said that with the amount of chances they created in the first half they were unfortunate to come away without a point.

“With the first half of the season out of the way we have to reassess our goals, but if we show that effort week in week out, we will win games,” he said.

“We’re just finding it a bit unlucky at the moment but you have to work for your luck and hopefully that will change.”

McCulloch said having so many veteran players out injured isn’t ideal, but their squad is increasing its depth by having so many young players step up to the mark.

“We had two guys make their debut last week [Annis and Bisset] and two again today [Hirrell and Prout] and they were excellent.”

 

ECU Joondalup 1 (Smith 51mins) 

Inglewood 2 (Micevski 6mins, Clarke 26’)

Saturday 13 June 2015

ECU Joondalup Football Stadium

Local kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Steve Gregory
Assistant Referees: Shuo Chen, Marko Rajakovic

ECU Joondalup: 1. Jamie SERRA (gk), 2. Ryan LOWRY, 4. Charlie COMYN-PLATT (c), 5. Cian HIRRELL (16. Joel PROUT 86'), 6. Jon STYNES, 8. Joe SMITH (C), 9. Guy McDONALD (10. Stuart MONTGOMERY 77'), 11. Rowdy YATES (17. Bayley MONTGOMERY 57'), 12. Josh TUCKER, 13. Tommy AMPHLETT, 14. Ollie ANNIS

Substitutes not used: 20. Ash MAYNARD-BREWER
(rgk), 15. Kye DOUGLAS
Yellow cards: Tucker 53', Comyn-Platt 90+3'
Red Cards: Nil

Inglewood United: 1. Aleksandar VRTESKI, 2. Rikki SMITH, 7. Kenny KEOGH (8. Scott WITSCHGE 75’), 9. Ryan CLARKE (22. Davide PANAIA 90+1’), 10. David MICEVSKI, 12. Tim GOULD, 13. Jovo PAVLOVIC (c), 14. Jarrod McNALLY, 18. Jason COLLI, 21. Abdul SESAY, 23. Andrija JUKIC (11. David SESAY 60')

Substitutes not used: 25. Mitchell PAPAS (rgk), 6. Matthew IZZO
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil