Report by Tristan Wheeler

Armadale beat Mandurah City 4-2 on Sunday afternoon at Securitas Protect Stadium, with three goals from Kyle King and one from David Annall.

Mandurah’s Jordan Rhodes and Oriol Fernandez grabbed a goal each, in a game where the difference was due to each team’s finishing and ball usage.

Mandurah’s coach Doug Hesketh acknowledged this difference in his post-match comments.

“I don’t think that we were smart enough with the ball, I didn’t think that we played a particularly better team than us, but I thought we were a bit naïve, we could have been a bit smarter”.

“At the end of the day, they scored more than us, so they were the better team. The result doesn’t lie, but we’re not playing to our potential”.

He felt that his side had fallen into the trap of trying to match Armidale’s counter attacking style and had utilised too many long balls.

Armadale coach John O’Reilly praised the way that his team had used the long ball to try and get players in behind Mandurah’s line of defence.

“Obviously as a coach you want to watch pretty football, and (I wish) that all those passes were along the ground, but considering who we were playing against today, the tactics that we used were pretty effective, and we did get a lot of opportunities.”

Both sides utilised the long ball to create attacks throughout the first half, although Mandurah found their greatest success occurred when they deviated from this tactic. Matthew Stares played a one-two pass with Ryan Francis, and then found Rhodes, who slotted home in the 31st to give Mandurah the lead.

Armadale hit back quickly with King converting at close range from a Dannie Richman cross in the 40th minute.

Mandurah should have restored their lead a couple of minutes later, however Rhodes hit the underside of the crossbar with a header from Fernandez’s cross.

King made them pay on the brink of half-time with his second goal of the match as Armadale went into the dressing rooms in front.

Mandurah came out fighting in the second half, and equalised. Francis stole the ball in Armadale’s half and passed to Fernandez, who calmly slotted the ball home from outside the box in the 51st.

Parity would last for 25 minutes, until Armadale defender Annall turned the ball home from a corner kick in the 76th to score their third and restore the lead.

This goal seemed to deflate Mandurah. Energetic Armadale striker Joshua Tumoe was introduced for an immediate impact, flicking the ball over the defence to put King clean through on goal in the 90th minute. King rounded the keeper and scored, sealing both his hat trick, and the match for Armadale.

The victory is Armadale’s second for the season, and takes them to seven points, five clear of Mandurah, who sit at the foot of the table.

Mandurah City 2 (Rhodes 31min, Fernandez 51)
Armadale 4 (King 40min, 45, 90, Annall 76)
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Securitas Protect Stadium
Kick-off: 3:00 pm
Referee: David Bruce    
Assistant Referees:  Simon Deegan, Peter Kaiser

Mandurah City: 1. Cyril SHARROCK, 2. Oliver MCGEE, 3. Jeffrey BRIGHT, 4. Matthew STARES, 5. Mitchell FIRTH (12. Thomas STRAKER 81), 6. Oscar THOMPSON (7.Jack EADES 46), 8. Andrew BROWN, 9. Sean TROUP, 10. Jordan RHODES, 11. Ryan FRANCIS
Substitutes not used: 16. Alex CLARKE, 21. Bradley EIFFE, 14.Mark MCLAUGHLIN
Yellow Cards: MCGEE 42min, BROWN 81
Red Cards: nil

Armadale: 1. Michael CRAGGS, 2. Dylan WHITE (19. Beau RAHIM 89), 3. Jake SARDELIC, 4. Nathan COSTELLO (c ), 5. Sam LOVELESS, 7. Charlie KENNA, 8. Jordan PAVETT (12. Joshua TUMOE 65), 9. Kyle KING, 11.Dannie RICHMAN (17. James ATKINS 91) , 14. David ANNALL, 16. Tristan TAYLOR
Substitutes not used: 23. Alec RADONICH, 18. Milan OGNJENOVIC
Yellow Cards: PAVETT 54min, TUMOE 86
Red Cards: nil