Report by Alasdair Beer

Balcatta inflicted a third straight defeat on Inglewood United with a 3-1 win in their PS4 National Premier Leagues WA Rivalry Round clash at Grindleford Reserve on Saturday.

The hosts overturned a 1-0 deficit to take the three points in what coach Ramon Falzon described as a commendable team performance following last week’s 1-1 draw with ECU Joondalup.

“Last week we created heaps of chances and missed heaps as well,” he said.

“We made some changes after last week and the whole team played well today.”

The hosts, who were missing captain James Sammut through injury, began aggressively, with Patrick Quinn drawing a diving save from Inglewood’s Aleks Vrteski with a sweetly-struck volley in the fifth minute.

Inglewood recovered, and went ahead in the 19^th minute after David Micevski ran onto a bobbling ball in the area and slotted calmly past Clint Davies.

Both sides continued to attack, but it was Balcatta who broke through as Cameron Teece rose highest to hit a powerful header past Vrteski nine minutes after Inglewood’s opener.

Balcatta’s Gustavo Catarcione saw a deft lob go just high in the 35^th minute before Inglewood substitute Scott Witschge went centimetres short of getting his head to Andrija Jukic’s free kick two minutes from half time.

As in the first half, the hosts created several chances early in the second.

They went close to claiming the lead in the 64^th minute, as Catarcione hit the post with a free kick from just outside the area and Vrteski claimed Steve Sokol’s follow-up effort.

Sokol was on target two minutes later, however, scoring the goal of the day after bringing the ball down on his chest between two defenders, before turning and hitting a powerful finish past Vrteski.

Inglewood battled hard for an equaliser, and had claims for a penalty dismissed after Mohamed Awad went down in the area in the 73^rd minute.

They went close again three minutes from time, as Brian Woodall shot straight at Davies after arriving at the far post to meet a deflected Witschge effort.

Their attacking zeal proved their undoing, as Catarcione raced onto a long ball a minute later, rolling a shot into an Inglewood net left vacant by Vrteski, who had come upfield to contest a corner.

The victorious Falzon said his players wouldn’t take a different approach into a testing next fortnight, which features away games at Perth SC and Bayswater City.

“In our league, you have to work hard for three points in every game,” he said.

“Playing Perth and Bayswater away, or Armadale and Perth Glory at home is no different – we still need our usual performance to get the three points.”

Stand-in Inglewood coach Saul Contera said it was up to his players to turn their season around.

“We were well below par in the second half,” he said.

“We’ve gone from five wins in a row to three losses in a row, so things can turn around very quickly - one win and we can start a run.

“We need to pull out fingers out and perform to a better standard than what we did today.” 

Balcatta 3 (Teece 28 mins, Sokol 66, Catarcione 88)
Inglewood United 1 (Micevski 10 mins)
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Grindleford Reserve
Kick off: 3pm

Balcatta: GK Clint DAVIES (C), 2 Hanafi GHEZALI, 3 Kieron STALLARD, 4 Alexsandar SULESKI, 6 Ross DIAMOND, 9 Cameron TEECE (10 Adrian CACERES 67), 11 Gustavo CATARCIONE, 14 Steve SOKOL, 17 Kieran COLWELL, 20 Patrick QUINN, 50 Blamo QUAQUA (16 Jackson AMOSA 88)
Substitutes not used: 21 Daniel PASSARELLI, 22 Jordan COLASANTE, 23 Mark ZAGAMI
Yellow cards: Stallard 3 mins, Diamond 19, 

Inglewood United: GK Aleksandar VRTESKI, 7 Kenny KEOGH (8 Scott WITSCHGE 32), 9 Brian WOODALL, 10 David MICEVSKI, 12 Tim GOULD, 13 Jovo PAVLOVIC, 14 Jarrod MCNALLY, 15 Mohamed AWAD, 16 Milan OGNJENOVIC (2 Rikki SMITH 68), 18 Jason COLLI, 23 Andrija JUKIC (11 David SESAY 57)
Substitutes not used: 23 Davide PANAIA, 24 Jordan HOWELL
Yellow cards: Witschge 37 mins, Jukic 57, Pavlovic 64, McNally 86