Report by Kelechi Osunwa

Inglewood United left it late to claim all three points as they defeated Perth Glory 2-1 in their PS4 National Premier Leagues WA fixture at Inglewood Stadium.

Kenny Keogh pounced on Calvin Whitney’s missed clearance and combined with the mercurial David Micevski before slotting away the winner to snatch victory.

It was the strikers’ fourth league goal of the season and he was delighted to repay the faith the manager has shown.

“We’ve started a lot of games (playing) pretty good but we haven’t got the result,” Keogh said.

“Michael Garcia is a great guy and so is the coaching staff here so it’s good to give them the reward.”

Coach Garcia had urged his side to take their chances, and he looked frustrated as his side failed to capitalise on several half-chances, the best saw Micevski rattle the crossbar from a free kick.

The game came to life in a frantic five minutes before half time, which saw Inglewood take the lead, concede a minute later, and then hold onto their advantage thanks to great save from custodian Alexsander Vrteski.

David Sesay created a metre of space to fire home a low shot from the top of the penalty box to put the hosts 1-0 ahead.

The lead lasted only a minute as Dejan Spaseski picked up the ball on the edge of Inglewood’s area, played a one-two with Nikola Talimdzioski, and matched Sesay’s finish from earlier.

Glory had their tails up and almost took the lead when the lively Stefan Valentini rose highest to head towards goals, only for Vrteski to palm the ball away.

Neither side were able to continue the frantic end of the first half as the Glory looked content to sit deep and catch Inglewood on the counter.

Keogh could have given the home side the lead in the 67^th minute after storming into the box and rifling goal-bound into Andrija Jukic, who was adjudged off-side.

Micevski, who caused Glory’s defence headaches all afternoon with his movement, wheeled away in celebration when he saw his towering header fly past Jordan Franken in the glory goal.

But his celebrations were short lived though as Gian Albano managed to hook the header off the line.

Micveski and Keogh would not be denied again, though, when the two combined late on to lift the home fans off their seats and subsequently lay out another harsh lesson for the Glory.

A frustrated Dejan Spaseski echoed the words of his manager John Gibson as he spoke about his side needing more maturity.

“It was good to get a goal but it didn’t get us anywhere in the end so it’s disappointing,” he said.

“Maturity, obviously experience plays a big part and we’ve got a young squad and we’ll learn and hopefully grow from there.

“We didn’t stick to our game plan or strategies that we spoke about before the game and during the week and that is what let us down.

“We’ll just keep working at training, work at what we’ve always done and we’ve just got to be more switched on at important parts in the game.”

Inglewood United 2 (Sesay 39mins, Keogh 90+3)
Perth Glory 1 (Spaseski 41)
Inglewood Stadium, Inglewood
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Stuart Muldoon
Assistant Referee: Roland Habit, Colin Duncan

Inglewood United: 1. Alexsander VRTESKI, 18. Jason COLLI (14. Jarrod McNALLY 85’) 15. Mohamed AWAD (8. Scott. WITSCHGE 24’), 2. Rikki SMITH, 13. Jovo PAVOLIC, 11. David SESAY, 21. Abdul SESAY, 7. Kenny KEOGH, 10. David MICEVSKI, 12. Tim GOULD, 16. Milan ODGENOVIC  (23. Andrija JUKIC 62),
Substitutes not used: 17. Ryan SARDI , 24. Jordan HOWELL
Yellow Cards: Tim Gould 82’, Abdul Sesay 85’
Red Cards: Nil

Perth Glory: 1. Jordan FRANKEN, 8. Dejan SPASESKI, 6. Calvin WHITNEY, 2. Gian ALBANO, 3. Jacob COLLARD, 5. Jesse LAZZARO (14. Ross Millard 68’), 11. Nikola TALIMDZIOSKI, 4. Nathan COSTELLO (12. Sean TROUP 70’), 7. Waliedin ISMAIL, 10. Sam MACKEARNAN (13. Daniel STYNES 82’) , 9. Stefan VALENTINI,
Substitutes not used: 15. Michael MCDOUGALL, 20. Ryan BARKER
Yellow Cards: Sam Mackearnan 30’, Calvin Whitney 76’
Red Cards: Nil