Report by Chris Andrawes

Floreat Athena began their National Premier Leagues WA campaign with a clinical 3-0 win over Inglewood United at E&D Litis Stadium on Saturday night.

Athena coach Chris Barbas felt his side had benefited from a solid Night Series run which had given his players confidence to be more creative in front of goal and almost saw the goal of the season come in the opening round.

Ludovic Boi took on an audacious shot from the half way line that was unfortunate to hit the crossbar after sailing over Inglewood keeper Luke Martino’s head.

It was an attempt that was almost identical to a goal that he scored against Western Knights in the Night Series a few weeks ago and it left Barbas full of praise for his striker. 

“That’s the creativity of the lads, they’re always looking for what’s up the park rather than just having a look to see what’s around,” he said.

“It’s a pity it didn’t come off, it deserved to be a goal.”

Athena took the lead after just 17 minutes, when a brilliant pass from David Heagney split the Inglewood defence to allow Jamie Eames to finish the move clinically.

The Inglewood defence appeared to fall asleep for the second goal as Mark Walsh walked the ball through the back four almost uncontested before slotting past Martino, who was unfortunate to see the ball squeeze under his foot.

Inglewood showed more spirit in the second half and began to fight back, forcing several top quality saves from Floreat keeper Yousri Gharasallah, who also earned praise from his coach after the match.

“He’s doing his job and he’s doing what he’s asked and when he needs to make the saves he makes the saves and that’s the job, so I’m very pleased”Barbas said.

Inglewood’s Ryan Francis was unfortunate to see his shot brilliantly saved by Gharasallah, especially given the ball immediately went up the other end, where Ludovic Boi was able to make it 3-0, following a shot from Mwansa Musonda that hit the post.

The counter-attack was so quick that Inglewood coach Graham Normanton was left perplexed.

“The third goal was a comedy of errors wasn’t it”Normanton said.

“I didn’t even see it to be honest, I turned around and the ball was in the back of the net, the goalkeeper had comfortable possession and the next thing it was in the back of our goal.”

The quick turnaround for the third goal was the decisive blow to Inglewood’s comeback and left Normanton frustrated with his side’s bad luck.

“It was one of those strange situations, but when there’s a turn like that, when you should score and you don’t, then they go up their end and do score with something they shouldn’t score from, it kicks you in the backside,”he said.

For Barbas the result was an indicator of how his team wants to perform for the rest of the season.

“It was always our aim today to make sure we got away with the three points and it’s pleasing that we kept a clean sheet as well,”Barbas said.

“We definitely want to make sure that we can consolidate and have good performances throughout the year and today was one of them.”

Floreat Athena 3 (Eames 17’, Walsh 23’, Boi 67’)
Inglewood United 0
Saturday, March 8, 2014
E&D Litis Stadium
Kick -off: 7pm
Referee: Adam Fielding
Crowd: 250 approx.

Floreat Athena: 1.Yousri GHARASALLAH, 3. Jack ALLEN, 6. Aryn WILLIAMS, 9. David HEAGNEY, 10. Mwasna MUSONDA, 11. Jamie EAMES(16. Andrew SCADAFERRO 60’), 14. Ludo BOI, 15. Callum FRANSZ, 18. Cameron YORKE, 20. Zedenek BEZDEK (8. Thomas GOODING 55’), 33. Mark WALSH (2. Blair GOVAN 77’).
Substitutes not used: 23. Tom DIXON, 19. Sam BARBAS
Yellow cards: Williams 65’
Red cards: nil

Inglewood United: 1. Luke MARTINO, 2. Joe PULLELLA, 3 Jonathan STRIPE, 6. Ryan FRANCIS, 8. David PERICH, 9. Ryan CLARKE, 10. Greg SHARLAND, 11. David SESAY, 13. Dhuors CHOL (14. Jarrod McNALLY 55’), 18. Jason COLLI, 19. Connor DEVLIN.
Substitutes not used: 22. Jake LUIK, 16. Sean BROWNE, 20. Paddy DOYLE, 21. Ryan TREACEY.
Yellow cards: nil
Red cards: nil