Report by Aisling Lawless

A dream start and a two-goal lead wasn’t enough to secure a win for Perth, who were held to a 3-3 draw by Inglewood United on Saturday in the NPL WA.

Friday Zico and Ashley Rosindale both scored in the opening 10 minutes at Dorrien Gardens and the latter increased Perth’s lead just after the restart.

But Scott Blackmore and Ryan Clarke’s combined efforts denied Perth a win, salvaging a fortunate point for Inglewood.

Despite the draw knocking Perth from second position on the NPL WA table, coach Taki Nicolaidis said they were still pleased with their progress so far this season.

“It’s great when you look from where we’ve come, to where we are, and I still think we have a bit more in us, especially since we have nine or 10 new players in the squad this year,” he said.

“But we are improving every week and as long as we are improving and learning then I’m pleased with that.”

However Nicolaidis also said they were punished for making some poor defensive errors during the game.

“It’s something that we need to work on definitely, as it has been a bit of a trait of ours lately.”

A well-focused start from Perth paid off early on when Friday Zico scored the opening goal in the seventh minute from a cross by Mark Pritchard.

Perth’s constructive movement going forward forced Inglewood into a defensive error two minutes later, giving NPL WA leading scorer Ashley Rosindale a chance to slide it past the keeper.

But Inglewood managed to enter the scoreboard in the 41st minute after a mishap from the Perth defence gave Clarke an opportunity to smash the ball into the back of the net.

Perth made efforts to regain their two-goal lead, but a flurry of attempts by Mark Doninger, Zico, Andreas Theodosiades and Aden Da Luz all failed to make it past Inglewood keeper Luke Martino.

Perth came out strong in the second half and Rosindale scored within 40 seconds of the restart after skipping past Jonathon Stripe to slide the ball into the net.

Inglewood hit back two minutes later when Blackmore took advantage of a series of failed clearances from a corner.

Much like the first half, the pace of play dropped off after two early goals, and there was a lack of urgency from both teams as they struggled to penetrate the back four.

But once again Perth’s lack of confidence in dealing with set pieces was evident when Clarke managed to score from his own corner.

Inglewood coach Graham Normanton said it was good to return to his old stomping ground, but he would have preferred to come away with a win.

“I thought we did pretty well, but once again we get punished for basic errors and that’s been our nemesis all season, so we have to eliminate that.”

“We did have a bit of a slow start to the game, so to come back and get a draw shows a bit of character in the team.”

Perth 3 (Friday ZICO 7’, Ashley ROSINDALE 9’, 46’)
Inglewood United 3 (Ryan CLARKE 41’, 88’, Scott BLACKMORE 48’)
Saturday 19 April, 2014
Dorrien Gardens, West Perth
Kick-off: 3.00pm
Referee: Rick Schneider
Assistant referees: Matthew Cheeseman, Colin Duncan.
Crowd: Appx 400

Perth: 1. Alex Dunn (gk), 2. Josh WILKINS, 4. Craig SIMPSON (c), 6. Clark KELTIE, 8. Aden DA LUZ, 9. Friday ZICO, 10. Ashley ROSINDALE, (12. Tim ROBERTSON 67’), 13. A CASTIELLO, 14. Mark PRITCHARD, 15. Mark DONINGER, (19. Andreas THEODOSIADES 5’), 20. James MAROCCHI, (22. Nathan De ABREU 86’)

Substitutes not used: 24. Domenico SAVOLDELLI (gk), 16. Nicholas ABROGIO
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil

Inglewood United: 1. Luke MARTINO (gk), 3. Jonathon STRIPE, 4. Shane PICKERING, 5. Scott BLACKMORE, 6. Ryan FRANCIS, 9. Ryan CLARKE, 10. Greg SHARLAND (c), (11. David SESAY 85’), 13. Teeboy KAMARA, (14. Jarrod MCNALLY 40’), (15. Scott WITSCHCE 95’), 18. Jason COLLI, 21. Million BUTSHIRE, 23. Andrija JUKIC

Substitutes not used: 22. Jake LUIK (gk), 7. Matt DANSKIN
Yellow cards: Greg SHARLAND 57’
Red cards: Nil