Report by Alasdair Beer

A trio of brilliant first-half goals helped Perth SC cruise to a 3-1 victory over Balcatta in their PS4 National Premier Leagues WA clash at Dorrien Gardens today.

Perth coach Taki Nicolaidis said his side needed the result after a disappointing showing against Bayswater City in the previous round.

“Last week we were terrible and I asked for a response from the boys today; 3-0 at half time and it was pretty much game over,” he said.

The match, known as the Ferrari Cup, began with a minute’s silence to honour the passing of former Perth members Esad Djulbic and Daniel Odina.

And, much like the high-performance vehicles parked at the perimeter of the pitch, Perth took no time to hit top gear, opening their account in the sixth minute after Aden Da Luz skipped past his man on the left before squaring for Mark Pritchard, who found the roof of the net from close range.

Reece Vittiglia added a second in the 15th minute, scoring the goal of the day after surging through midfield before smashing a shot from outside the area into the top right corner of Clint Davies’ goal.

Balcatta appeared flustered but went close to scoring their first through both Cameron Teece, who drew an acrobatic save from Francis Soale in the 31st minute, and Gustavo Catarcione, whose low shot was held by the keeper, diving to his right three minutes later.

Balcatta’s Kieran Colwell was shown a yellow card in the 36th minute after bringing down Dean Evans on the edge of the Perth box.

Evans completed his own good work by curling a powerful free kick past a sprawling Davies a minute later for Perth’s third.

With the damage already done, Perth appeared content to see the game out in the second half as both sides struggled to penetrate.

Balcatta substitute Hasan El Yassiri provided a rare highlight with a smart left-foot finish past Soale three minutes from time to give his side a consolation goal.

A forgettable day for Balcatta was made worse when substitute James Sammut was shown a straight red card in the 90th minute for treading on Perth’s Harley Orr.

Nicolaidis said the quality of goals highlighted the attacking threat his side possessed.

“We’ve got players who have got that bit of individual brilliance and eight times out of ten they’ll come out on top,” he said.

The Perth boss said he was looking forward to next week’s home encounter with in-form Sorrento.

“It’ll be a good test for us, they’ve gone seven games undefeated and they’re playing really well,” he said.

Balcatta face a similarly testing encounter next week as they travel to Frank Drago Reserve to take on league leaders Bayswater.

Balcatta 1 (El Yassiri 87 mins)
Perth SC 3 (Pritchard 6 mins, Vittiglia 15, Evans 37)
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Dorrien Gardens
Kick off: 3pm

Balcatta: GK Clint DAVIES (C), 2 Hanafi GHEZALI, 3 Kieron STALLARD, 4 Alexsandar SULESKI, 6 Ross DIAMOND (9 Hasan EL YASSIRI 73), 11 Gustavo CATARCIONE (7 James SAMMUT 63), 14 Steve SOKOL (10 Adrian CACERES 56), 16 Cameron TEECE, 17 Kieran COLWELL, 20 Patrick QUINN, 50 Blamo QUAQUA
Substitutes not used: 21 Daniel PASSARELLI, 23 Mark ZAGAMI
Yellow cards: Colwell 36 mins
Red cards: Sammut 90

Perth SC: GK Francis SOALE, 2 Joshua WILKINS, 3 David CYRUS, 5 Dean EVANS (18 Josh PEREIRA 73), 6 Clark KELTIE (C), 8 Aden DA LUZ, 11 Julian MADASCHI, 13 Rocco PIZZATA, 14 Mark PRITCHARD, 16 Nicholas AMBROGIO (9 Harley ORR 67), 17 Reece VITTIGLIA (21 Matt MILENKOVIC 78)
Substitutes not used: 12 Marco SANTALUCIA, 25 Alex DUNN
Yellow cards: Vittiglia 78 mins