Report by Aidan Shaw

Photo by Brett Klucznik

Inglewood United and Mandurah City have taken a point each from a tightly contested 2-2 draw at Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium on Saturday.

The visitors held the lead twice, but allowed it to be erased both times by Brian Woodall’s second half brace.

With Mandurah still chasing their first win since their return to the state’s top flight, Doug Hesketh said the draw felt more like a loss for his side.

“I thought we played well for 90 minutes against last year’s runners up, but it feels pretty hollow because we’ve gone bottom of the league table now,” he said.

“The game at every level is all about mistakes. The team that makes the least mistakes usually wins, so we’ve just got to keep working on that.”

A first-half full of half chances and a multitude of corners for both sides sprung to life in the 42nd minute, when Adam Tong brought down Ryan Francis in the area with a poorly timed challenge.

Referee Stuart Muldoon pointed straight to the spot, and Oscar Thompson converted the resulting penalty powerfully to the right of Alex Dunn.

This was the wake-up call Inglewood needed, who began to look more confident as soon as play resumed.

Alex Salmon nearly found the equaliser early in the second-half, firing two powerful shots in quick succession and forcing a pair of excellent saves from Cyril Sharrock.

On the hour mark Salmon forced another save from Sharrock, but this time he could only parry it as far as Woodall who buried the follow up.

The hosts then had a string of chances to take the lead, but found themselves behind again in the 66th minute when their defence was caught napping.

Some good build up play by Mandurah saw the ball land with Jeffrey Bright with acres of space inside the area, firing home powerfully via the crossbar to make it 2-1.

Woodall missed two opportunities to equalise before he was successful on the third, salvaging a point for the hosts in the final minute of regular time.

A pin point cross into the box from the right by Scott Blackmore saw Woodall go up into an aerial contest with Sharrock, nodding home to the elation go the Inglewood faithful.

Substitute Mark Pritchard came close to converting a free-kick in the dying moments of injury time but it went narrowly wide.

The result sees Inglewood wear their third 2-2 draw in five matches, and Taki Nicolaidis said the result was a disappointing one.

“In terms of depth, experience and quality, we’ve got that, but at the moment we’re not even getting close to a pass mark and that’s not acceptable,” he said.

“Every game we’ve been in positions to win, but we haven’t come away with the results. At this level it is all about results, and I am far from impressed.”


Inglewood United 2 (Woodall 60min, 90)
Mandurah City 2 (Thompson 42 pen, Bright 66)
Saturday, March 18, 2017    
Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Stuart Muldoon
Assistant Referees: Josh Nixon, Frank Laval

Inglewood United: GK Alex DUNN, 3. David CYRUS (c), 4. Scott BLACKMORE, 5. Adam TONG, 8. Jason BARRERA, 9. Alex SALMON, 10. Ash ROSINDALE (14. Mark PRITCHARD 75), 11. John MIGAS, 15. Brian FARRELL (12. Luke RANDAZZO 84), 18. Jason COLLI (7. Kenny KEOGH 64), 23. Brian WOODALL
Substitutes not used: RGK Riley STEPHENSON, 19. Chok DAU
Yellow cards: nil
Red cards: nil

Mandurah City: GK Cyril SHARROCK, 2. Oliver MCGEE, 3. Jeffrey BRIGHT, 4. Matthew STARES, 5. Daniel DYSON, 6. Oscar THOMPSON (9. Craig TONE 78), 7. Mitchell FIRTH, 8. Andrew BROWN (c), 10. Sean TROUP (15. Joseph O’BRIEN 70), 11. Ryan FRANCIS, 14. Mark MCLAUGHLIN
Substitutes not used: RGK Bradley EIFFE, 12. Jordan RHODES, 17. Oriol FERNANDEZ
Yellow cards: nil
Red cards: nil