Football West News

Jamie Coyne shared the same football pitch as West Adelaide coach Paul Pezos only briefly during the early days of the Hyundai A-League.

But the Bayswater City defender has a good idea of what to expect from Pezos’ side when they meet in the PS4 NPL National Finals Series elimination final at Adelaide Shores Football Centre on Sunday.

“Paul came over for a short time when Ron Smith was in charge of Perth Glory,” Coyne said. “He liked to play out from the back but he liked to tackle as well, so if those characteristics are in his team than it will be a hard game.”

Bayswater will head into this year’s National Finals Series aiming to improve on last year when Coyne was sent off early in the game and they lost to eventual champions MetroStars.

The nature of that defeat still rankles Coyne, who watched from the sidelines as 10-man Bayswater pushed MetroStars all the way to a penalty shoot-out. The South Australians won that lottery and went on to beat South Melbourne in the semi-finals and Bonnyrigg White Eagles in the final.

“Personally, I was pretty disappointed to get sent off but watching from the sidelines I thought we could’ve won the game. We had three or four good chances.

“Now there’s an expectation that we can go over to Adelaide and do well. We’ve built that culture over the last couple of seasons that we expect to win but (in the National Finals Series) these are the best teams in their leagues, so it will be tough.”

Bayswater’s Finals Series defeat last year came at Frank Drago Reserve but City are looking positively at their first away test.

“The boys are looking forward to a trip away,” Coyne said. “For a lot of the boys who haven’t travelled with football it’s something new. Playing away is not looked at as a negative at all, especially by the younger boys who have ambitions of playing at the professional level. This will give them a bit of a taste of it.”

The winners of the four Elimination Finals will progress to the semi-finals, which will be hosted by the team with the highest number of points, according to the NPL format.

The format is as follows:

Win in 90 minutes, 3 points
Win in extra time, 2 points
Win on penalties, 1 point
Goals scored (excluding penalty shootouts), 3 points
Goals conceded (excluding penalty shootouts), -1 point
Yellow card, -1 point
Red card, -3 points

PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues Elimination Finals

Game 1: Saturday, September 19

Moreton Bay United (Qld) v Edgeworth FC (Northern NSW) – 5.30pm

Game 2: Sunday, September 20

Blacktown City (NSW) v Canberra (ACT) – 2pm

Game 3: Saturday, September 19

South Melbourne (Vic) v Olympia (Tas) – 2pm

Game 4: Sunday, September 20

West Adelaide (SA) v Bayswater City – 1pm

All WA kick-off times.

Semi-finals

Winner of Game 1 v Winner of Game 2

Winner of Game 3 v Winner of Game 4