Report by Saxon Durrant

Title favourites Bayswater City blew a two goal lead at Perth Plasterboard Stadium to share the spoils with Inglewood United on Sunday night.

In a big opening game between two of the title favourites Inglewood started the stronger, controlling the tempo and forcing several saves out of Bayswater goalkeeper Devon Spence.

However it was Bayswater who struck first when David Heagney laid the ball off to Todd Howarth, who accurately powered his shot from outside of the area into the bottom right hand corner.

Bayswater smelled blood in the water and took control of the game, adding a second only five minutes later when Andrija Jukic was found on the edge of the area.

He lofted the ball into the top right corner, past Inglewood keeper Alex Dunn to double Bayswater’s lead and ensure the black and blue entered the half-time break in full control of the match.

The start of the second half saw Bayswater continue their control with Jason Micro shooting wide and a goal line clearance keeping Bayswater to a two goal lead.

Despite their lack of chances, Inglewood kept pressing and forcing mistakes from a sometimes shaky Bayswater defence and were gifted their reward in the 78th minute.

A high clearance from a corner fell squarely on the boot of debutant and early substitute Luke Randazzo who volleyed home into the top right corner, giving Devon Spence no chance.

Bayswater seemed deflated by Inglewood’s direct approach and cracks began to show in their defence.

Six minutes later Bayswater’s hard work and lead was undone as Inglewood notched an equaliser.

A cross from the left hand side found Alex Salmon at the far post, with his header hitting the back of the net, much to the delight of the home crowd.

A scrappy final few minutes saw little chances, and left both teams with a point to start off the PS4 NPL WA season.

Bayswater head coach Chris Coyne said he wasn’t disappointed with the result but said his team should have played better in the second half.

“At 2-0 I’d like to think we could be a bit stronger but when teams are prepared to just hoof the ball forward and get at you we’ve got to be a bit more resilient,” Coyne said.

“You’ve got to have players that are prepared to do the hard work and unfortunately we didn’t have enough of them tonight.”

Inglewood head coach Taki Nicolaidis said his players showed good character and fitness to come back in the match, despite Bayswater having much more match fitness.

“The last couple of weeks our intensity and work-rate at training has improved and I think at the end we were the fitter team,” Nicolaidis said.

“We’ve got to take a point from this and start planning for our game against Sorrento next week.”

Bayswater City have a home tie against last year’s bottom side Subiaco, while Inglewood host Sorrento, who beat Balcatta 5-1 on Friday night.

Inglewood United 2 (Randazzo 78min, Salmon 84)
Bayswater City 2 (Howarth 35min, Jukic 40)
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium
Kick Off: 7:15pm
Referee: David Bruce
Assistant referees: Shane Skinner, Taz Paraskevas

Inglewood United: 1. Alex Dunn, 2. Alex Ishida-Livings, 3. David Cyrus, 5. Adam Tong, 7. Kenny Keogh (12. Luke Randazzo 12), 8. Jason Barrera, 9. Alex Salmon, 10. Ash Rosindale (16. Matthew Ntoumenopoulous 66) 14. Mark Pritchard (18. Jason Colli 66) 17. Tim Robertson, 21. Brian Woodall
Substitutes not used: RGK: Riley Stephenson, 19. Kyle Murray
Yellow Cards: 9. Alex Salmon 48, 17. Tim Robertson 62, 14. Mark Pritchard 16
Red Cards: Nil

Bayswater City: 1. Devon Spence, 2. Declan Hargreaves, 6. Todd Howarth, 10. Jason Micro, 11. Devon Gibson, 12. David Stokoe, 13. Trent Kay, 17. Bor Bor Sam, 20. Sam Mitchinson, 21. David Heagney, 23. Andrija Jukic (19. Luka Ninkovic 59)
Substitutes not used: 25. Michael Cohen, 4. Brent Griffiths, 14. Aydun Dragun, 22. Jamie Murphy
Yellow Cards: Andrija Jukic 37
Red Cards: Nil