Football West News

Cockburn City and Inglewood United both lost ground in the NPL WA title race as they drew 1-1 in the match of Round 16 on Saturday.

With leaders Bayswater City chalking up a seventh consecutive win at home to Stirling Lions, the match at Dalmatinac Park took on extra significance.

LINKS TO FULL MATCH REPORTS BELOW

Cockburn struck first through Ryan Pratt 20 minutes from time, before David Cyrus restored parity on 83 minutes.

The result saw Cockburn slip from second to third and they are now five points off the top, although coach Scott Miller was not unhappy afterwards.

“I’m really, really happy with the way the boys went about it today,” he said.

“In the first round Inglewood battered us 3-0, they outplayed us and bullied us, but today we stood up and I thought we were very good.”

Inglewood, who went into the match on a run of six wins from seven, also dropped a place to fifth. They are now 10 points behind Bayswater, whom they play at home next Sunday.

"I think the boys played well, we’re not dissatisfied with a point but we felt that we should have got the three points in the end,” Inglewood assistant coach Saul Contera said.

Bayswater would have been pleased to see two of their rivals cut each other’s throats as they defeated Stirling 3-0 without too much fuss.

Luka Ninkovic scored twice and youngster Luke Salmon also grabbed a goal as Chris Coyne’s side moved four points clear of second place, now occupied by Perth Glory.

Baysie coach Chris Coyne said: “We started okay obviously getting that early goal but then we seemed to take our foot off the gas a little bit so I was quite frustrated.

“In saying that we’ve kept another clean sheet, scored three goals and we’re clear at the top of the league, so it’s a good day at the office.”

Glory moved into second with a 5-0 thrashing of whipping boys Joondalup United, whose performance was described as “shocking all round” by coach Nick Jennings.

Naturally Glory coach John Gibson was more upbeat after watching his side race into a 3-0 half-time lead.

"The plan was to get the job done and well done to the boys because they followed the process and it could have been more,” he said.

"We had a 17-year-old in goals and a 17-year-old playing at right-back and it’s good to see we’ve got some good depth to keep the momentum going.”

The musical chairs at the bottom of the table saw Balcatta drop into the relegation zone after they were humbled 5-1 by resurgent Floreat, who showed no hangover from their FFA Cup exit to Gwelup Croatia last Monday.

That wasn’t the case for ECU Joondalup, whose miserable week was capped by a 2-0 loss to Subiaco.
Forrestfield United made it back-to-back league wins for the first time this season with a 2-0 home victory over Sorrento, who are now second bottom.

And Perth SC could still have a say at the top end of the table after they moved into fourth spot with a 4-0 win over Belt up. State Cup finalists Armadale, who are ninth but only three points off the bottom three.

RESULTS

Cockburn City 1-1 Inglewood United
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Perth SC 4-0 Armadale
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Bayswater City 3-0 Stirling Lions
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Balcatta 1-5 Floreat Athena
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Joondalup United 0-5 Perth Glory
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Subiaco 2-0 ECU Joondalup
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

Forrestfield United 2-0 Sorrento
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE