MATCH WRAP: Rampant Glory go top
rrepressible Perth Glory stormed to the top of the National Premier Leagues WA table on Saturday with another demonstration of their firepower.
The league’s top scorers won 5-3 away to ECU Joondalup and it is now 55 goals from 18 matches for John Gibson’s side.
LINKS TO FULL MATCH REPORTS BELOW
The result took Glory two points clear of Bayswater City, who slipped to second after going down at home to third-place Cockburn City.
And in what is promising to be a thrilling final eight rounds of the season, Inglewood United cannot be discounted after they won in unusual circumstances against Armadale.
But it’s Glory who are there to be shot at after they picked up their first NPL win over ECU.
The game was in the balance at 1-1 with 20 minutes remaining and even three minutes from the end of normal time the Jacks trailed only 2-1.
But then the match went goal crazy, with five more scored in the closing stages as Glory again finished with a flourish.
“Pleased with the performance, especially with 10 players from our roster missing, and delighted for 17-year-old Zayd Farah who made his debut for us today,” Gibson said.
“But we’re not getting carried away, we conceded three really soft goals today and we lost focus, which isn’t like us. But it’s fantastic to come here and get a result.”
ECU coach Dale McCulloch was unhappy with the second-half dismissal of defender Cian Hirrell for a second yellow card but had no complaints about the result.
McCulloch said: “That’s not why we lost the game, when you defend like we did today at set-pieces you don’t win games, we need to be better than that.”
Another coach not impressed with his side was Bayswater’s Chris Coyne, who criticised his team’s finishing following their 2-1 reverse against Cockburn.
Harry O’Brien netted two for the Cockerels, while youngster Luke Salmon struck late on for Bayswater.
But the home side missed a raft of chances, including a penalty from Paul Lloyd, as they went down to one of their title rivals for the second week in a row.
“Off the top of my head there was six or seven clear chances today that we should have scored, and obviously Lloydy missing the penalty as well,” Coyne said.
“Credit where credit is due to Cockburn today, but we need to have a hard look at ourselves and buck our ideas up if we have got any ideas of winning the league.”
Cockburn coach Scott Miller admitted his side had been under the cosh early on but was full of praise for O’Brien.
“We probably rode our luck a little bit at the start, if I’m honest, I thought they were very good in the first 20 or 25 minutes,” he said.
“Once we got away with that I thought we came into the game and I thought we were outstanding in transition today, and Harry O’Brien with two great finishes.”
The most unusual incident of the weekend came at Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium, where Inglewood beat Armadale 3-2.
Andy Keogh’s side looked on course for a routine win when they led 2-0 with 13 minutes remaining. But Armadale pulled one back through Josh Kuser before matters took a controversial turn.
After play was halted to allow Inglewood’s Kenny Keogh to receive treatment, Armadale gave the ball to United keeper Alex Dunn to resume play. However Armadale striker Chris Jackson nipped in and scored, much to the anger of the home side.
After a few minutes’ deliberation, Armadale accepted Jackson had made an error of judgement and keeper Sam Hutchings deliberately put through his own goal from Alex Salmon’s restart to restore Inglewood’s one-goal advantage which they held on to.
Armadale coach John O’Reilly said: “When you’re losing 2-1 and the ladder is as close as it is, you don’t want to give anything away. But my conscience got the better of me. I spoke to my captain and he agreed.”
Inglewood coach Andy Keogh agreed Armadale had done the right thing.
“Their captain and manager deciding to give us an own goal speaks volumes for the fact their striker shouldn’t have done what he did. It’s not what anybody wants to see in the game,” he said.
Perth SC’s hopes of regaining their title were hit on Saturday after they conceded a last-minute equaliser against Subiaco and coach Ramon Falzon said: “I think it’s our fault. When you dominate the game for so long in possession you need to translate it into chances and into goals.”
At the bottom there were valuable wins for Sorrento, Balcatta and Floreat Athena, whose coach Howard Tweats resigned on the eve of their game with Joondalup United.
RESULTS
ECU Joondalup 3 (Bodnar og 11min, Nicol 88, Brooks 90+4)
Perth Glory 5 (Domfeh 1min, Mustafa 70, McDougall 87, 90+3, Brown-Montgomery 88)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Bayswater City 1 (Salmon 90+4min)
Cockburn City 2 (O’Brien 27min, 68)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Balcatta 2 (Wild 1min, 30)
Forrestfield United 0
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Stirling Lions 1 (Sokol 38min)
Sorrento 2 (Salter 17min, Teece 35)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Joondalup United 0
Floreat Athena 4 (Evans 7min, 68, Stynes 81, Hina 90)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Inglewood United 3 (Keogh 12min, Woodall 74, Hutchings og 82)
Armadale 2 (Kuser 77min, Jackson 81)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
Subiaco 1 (Clark 90min)
Perth SC 1 (Zimarino 12min)
FULL MATCH REPORT HERE
TABLE
| POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Perth Glory | 18 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 55 | 21 | 34 | 41 |
| 2 | Bayswater City | 18 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 46 | 15 | 31 | 39 |
| 3 | Cockburn City | 18 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 38 | 24 | 14 | 37 |
| 4 | Inglewood Utd | 18 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 32 | 23 | 9 | 35 |
| 5 | Perth SC | 18 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 38 | 19 | 19 | 33 |
| 6 | ECU Joondalup | 18 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 29 | 30 | -1 | 27 |
| 7 | Armadale | 18 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 29 | 30 | -1 | 22 |
| 8 | Floreat Athena | 18 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 21 |
| 9 | Subiaco | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 21 | 28 | -7 | 20 |
| 10 | Sorrento | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 31 | 40 | -9 | 20 |
| 11 | Stirling Lions | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 29 | 39 | -10 | 20 |
| 12 | Forrestfield Utd | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 24 | 35 | -11 | 20 |
| 13 | Balcatta | 18 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 25 | 40 | -15 | 19 |
| 14 | Joondalup Utd | 18 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 13 | 63 | -50 | 4 |
Last Modified on 27/06/2018 11:44
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