Report by Blayne Treadgold

Forrestfield United were relegated in embarrassing fashion on Saturday after they were crushed 8-1 at home by Stirling Lions.

United went down after just one season in the NPL WA as Lions striker Alex Tanevski helped himself to four goals.

Dean Cummings, Conor Scullion, Alex Suleski and Steve Sokol scored the others to ensure Keegan Ashley’s side finished 2018 on a high.

Subiaco's surprise 1-0 defeat of Perth Glory ultimately meant that Forrestfield would have been relegated regardless of how they fared at Wildlife Safari Stadium. But it was definitely not the way coach Rod Banjac would have wanted his players to end their campaign.

“It’s very disappointing, I think at the end of the day the pressure got to us. We conceded a couple of cheap goals, we chased it after that and opened ourselves up,” Banjac said.

“This year has been absolutely fantastic for us. We’ve been confronted with some serious challenges on and off the pitch but they are now behind us.

“This is not the end of Forrestfield, it’s just the beginning."

For Stirling it was a fantastic way to cap off their roller-coaster season.

Coach Keegan Ashley said: “It's very pleasing and it’s been coming, we’ve been playing well the last five or six weeks so it’s a very good way to finish the season.

“We added a bit of quality to what we already have, we worked hard on all the things at training and it’s all come to fruition here today.”

“It was important we finished well moving into next year, so we’ll take it from there."

Forrestfield, who had to better Subiaco's result to have any chance of staying up, fell behind on 15 minutes when Cummings struck and five minutes later Stirling doubled their advantage when Tanevski headed in a Scullion cross.

Scullion was next to get his name on the scoresheet when Sokol beat the offside trap to go one on one with Forrestfield keeper Luke Martino, only to unselfishly lay off the ball to team mate Scullion to finish with the easiest of tap-ins.

Right-back Suleski added to Forrestfield’s woes when he ghosted in to head home a David Micevski corner unchallenged.

Sokol closed out the half with a goal of his own following some sloppy play by the Forrestfield defence. They lost the ball in a dangerous position which allowed Sokol an easy finish to send the visitors in 5-0 up at half-time.

Despite knowing they were heading for State League Division One, Forrestfield raised the intensity in the second half with Rhys Loxley adding a much-needed spark after he came on for Kristian Despotovski at the break.

However, it went from bad to terrible for Forrestfield when Josh Appleby was shown a straight red card for a deliberate hand ball on the line which denied Stirling a certain goal.

Tanevski doubled his personal tally as he sent Martino the wrong way.

It wasn’t long before Tanevski turned hat-trick hero when he easily stepped inside his defender and fired across a helpless Martino.

Hasani Sinclair managed to pull one back for the home side, but Tanevski fittingly had the final word in a stunning Stirling display.

Forrestfield United 1 (Sinclair 81min)
Stirling 8 (Cummings 15, Tanevski 23 58 pen, 60, 82, Scullion 31, Suleski 36, Sokol 42)
Wildlife Safari Stadium
Saturday, August 25
Kick-off: 3pm
Referee: Shane Skinner
Assistant referees: Stuart Muldoon, Troy Malatesta
 
Forrestfield United: 1. Luke MARTINO, 2. Tom SOUTHGATE (12. Callum DOBBS 55) 3. Wilbert TSHABANGU, 5. Josh APPLEBY 6. Kristian DESPOTOVSKI (23. Rhys LOXLEY 50) 7.Joshua KOTIO (16, Thomas JEBB 59)
8. Mitchell CROCKER, 9. Hasani SINCLAIR, 10, Jordan HART, 11. Liam MERIGAN, 14. Benjamin ROGERS,
17. Leslie MARI
Unused substitutes: 15. Mitchell BARKER, , 18. Benjamin PARRY,
Yellow cards: 11. Liam MERIGAN, 3. Wilbert TSHNBANGU
Red cards: 5. Josh APPLEBY

Stirling Lions: 1. Lewis ITALIANO (GK), 3. Christopher McLAUGHLIN (12. Dejan SPASESKI 69) 4. Alex SULESKI, 5. David MOLINARI (2. David FILIPPOU 69) 6. Dhors CHOUL, 8. Dean CUMMINGS, 9. Zane CASELLA, 10. David MICEVSKI, 11. Conor SCULLION (7. Jamie DOCHERTY 61) 14. Steve SOKOL 17. Alex TANEVSKI
Substitutes not used: 15. Ben CAMPBELL, 20. Damien DAMSONOSKI
Yellow cards: 17. Alex TANEVSKI
Red cards: Nil