Football West News

A name synonymous with football in Western Australia took the Round 10 plaudits on the weekend as Forrestfield United announced themselves as an NPL WA outfit.

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Seventeen-year-old Kristian Despotovski - the son of former Perth Glory great and Forrestfield assistant coach Bobby Despotovski - scored four goals as Rod Banjac's team pulled off an incredible 6-1 away win at ECU Joondalup.

A lot of the talk before the match was how the NPL's new boys would deal with ECU's red-hot winger Daryl Nicol and the Scot provided the Jacks' one bright moment when he curled in his 10th goal of the season.

But Saturday was all about Forrestfield and Despotovski. The teenager, who signed for United earlier this month, had his hat-trick by the 57th minute to put his team 3-0 up and completed the scoring deep into injury time.

Rhys Loxley and Hasani Sinclair from the spot were the other Forrestfield scorers.

“I'm really happy with the performance today. We were playing a quality opponent but we created and took our chances well, and the young lad (Despotovski) was on fire,” said Banjac, whose side are at home to Subiaco on Wednesday.

ECU went into the game with the league's best defensive record but that was blown out of the water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWe1IUqWi8&feature=youtu.be

Jacks coach Dale McCulloch said: “Take nothing away from Rod and his side, they were much better on the day and deserved their win. But I’m the coach of this side and I take responsibility for the loss and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

McCulloch and his team get a chance to make amends on Wednesday when they host Balcatta, whose four-match winning streak was ended by Cockburn City on the weekend.

Luccas Mello fired a treble for the Cockerels, who are second on goal difference going into their midweek clash at Floreat Athena.

Bayswater City are back on top of the table after they put their mini-slump behind them to beat Subi 3-1 on Saturday.

Luka Ninkovic and Andrija Jukic put Bayswater 2-0 ahead early in the second half and though Steve Purton pulled one back from the penalty spot, Gian Albano wrapped up the points for Chris Coyne's side in stoppage time.

Bayswater are away to Sorrento on Wednesday with the Gulls back to winning ways following a run of four straight losses.

“Hopefully this gives us a bit of confidence to go on a run and start climbing the table," said coach Jamie Harnwell after his team's 3-0 win over bottom club Joondalup United.

Perth Glory headed the table going into Round 10 but they were undone 2-1 by Inglewood United, for whom Ellis Healing scored another quality strike.

Next up for Inglewood are Perth SC, who would have gone top with a win at Stirling Lions on Saturday. However, the Azzurri had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Stirling’s David Micevski and Paul Zimarino of Perth both scoring twice.

Armadale's upturn in form continued with a 4-0 thumping of Floreat at E&D Litis Stadium and they will hope to continue in a similar vein against Glory on Wednesday.

The other midweek game is between Joondalup United and Stirling.

Results
Perth Glory 1-2 Inglewood United
Floreat Athena 0-4 Armadale
ECU Joondalup 1-6 Forrestfield United
Balcatta 2-4 Cockburn City
Stirling Lions 2-2 Perth SC
Sorrento 3-0 Joondalup United
Subiaco 1-3 Bayswater City