West Torrens Birkalla held league leaders West Adelaide to a nil all draw at Jack Smith Park on Saturday in Round 15 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.

West Adelaide Coach Paul Pezos said he was happy to walk away with a point in a scrappy contest.

“It wasn’t the best of games but it was quite difficult for both teams, defensively both teams worked hard and (Birkalla) were hard to break down.

“It was quite even and we had quite a few chances in the second half, but I’m happy we came away with a point.”

It was always going to be an interesting contest, with the defensive prowess of West Adelaide coming up against the potent forward line of Birkalla.

The visitors arguably came out on top in that regard, effectively limiting the impact of Birkalla’s key players, but the Birkalla back four deserve recognition as well, claiming their first clean sheet of the season.

Pezos said his side had gone out with a plan to limit the impact of players like Kitto and Watson.

“We identified their strengths and we tried to eliminate them playing to certain players, and that worked quite well for us.

“We had players doing a one-on-one job and they did exceptionally well, but it was just one of those games.

It was a game of two halves for both sides, with Birkalla seeing lots of the ball in their attacking third, but lacking that final ball to finish off their chances.

Defender Scott Nagel said this was a common occurrence in the Birkalla playing system.

“That tends to be something with us, we do dominate play and knock balls around but it’s that last part where we need a quick shot that we tend to struggle.

“Sometimes we try to press our luck and try to get one more pass in, but it’ll come and we’re still very dangerous.”

Nagel said it was disappointing to walk away with only the one point, but said there were plenty of positives for the side to take away.

“It would have been a great game to win against a top side, but in saying that it was good that they didn’t win and stretch the gap between us even further.

“I’m more disappointed in the way the game went, it was almost like both sides cancelled each other; neither sides were dangerous to each other, the general play had a lot of turnovers, but the defensive styles of both teams were just really solid.”

Birkalla had a penalty shout waved away after Ryan Kitto went down in the box, which was the only big talking point of a scrappy first half.

The game opened up a bit more in the second half for West Adelaide, with the visitors best chances coming through playmaker Ricardo Da Silva.

The best chance of the game came from a Matthew Bouzalas corner, which was met by the head of Da Silva, but he couldn’t direct his header goal ward, instead hitting the crossbar.

The afternoon turned sour for the home side with defender John-Paul Cirillo being carted off on a stretcher, after falling heavily going up for a contest with Alex Rideout.

Cirillo said he had been given the all clear from the doctor to play in this week’s double header.

“I’ve been given the all clear from the doctors, it was just a minor concussion so I’ll be training on Tuesday and hopefully pull up fine for Saturday’s game.

“My necks pretty tight, I felt a bit seedy afterwards; it was my first concussion so I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Cirillo’s inclusion will be vital for Birkalla, with a double header against Para Hills and Metrostars, while West Adelaide in-form sides Raiders and Adelaide City.

Article by Brendan Simpkins