Report by Tommy Doleman

Inglewood's Robert Petkov attracts the attention of four Perth Glory players. Photo by Tom McCarthy

Sean McManus' winner extended Floreat Athena's unbeaten start to the Men's NPL campaign to 11 games as they defeated a resilient Rockingham City side 2-1 at SafeRad Stadium.

Saturday's result moved Vas Vujacic's side nine points clear of nearest rivals Perth SC and ECU Joondalup, who both lost on what could be a pivotal day in the title race.

Rockingham, meanwhile, are six points adrift at the bottom. But this was a good performance from Goran Stajic's side against the league leaders and on another day they could have taken something from the game.

City should have gone in front when they were awarded a penalty after Jethro Yumange was fouled but Athena keeper Jason Saldaris came to his team's rescue. Feisal Zaw then fired over the bar for Rockingham, who were duly punished when Nick Ambrogio hooked a cross over his shoulder and Jawad Rezai arrived to score.

The setback did not faze Rockingham and they were deservedly level five minutes later when Zaw slipped Hamish Van Dieken through to finish.

City were reduced to 10 men on 73 minutes when Harry Bolan was shown a red card for sliding in on Ludovic Boi and Floreat were able to capitalise moments later. A loose ball in the area broke to McManus and he slammed home to give the visitors the lead.

There was late drama when Saldaris pulled off a spectacular late save from Yumange and Athena's George Festa was sent off. But like all good title-chasing teams, Floreat saw the game out to collect three valuable points.

The win was made more important as second-place Perth lost 3-0 at Balcatta.

Balcatta went in front on the half-hour mark as Carmelo Giuffre met Anthony Topini's corner at the near post to open his account for 2021.

Perth midfielder Calvin Whitney then saw his penalty saved by Riley Stephenson and the hosts completed an impressive win with two additional goals after the break.

Giuffre won the ball in his own half and fed Dave Perich who netted for a second straight home game, before Amir Ajan lashed in a late third as Balcatta went seventh in the league.

Cockburn City also scored a massive result in the bottom half of the division as they came from behind to win 2-1 at defending champions ECU Joondalup.

Jesse Lazzaro's free-kick hit the post with the game's best early chance, but Kenny Lowe's side took the lead on 26 minutes when Danny Hodgson glanced in a sixth of the season from Daryl Nicol's corner.

But a second-half double from Daniel Robinson turned things around for the visitors. The striker's first came from Sebastian Da Silva's cutback on 48 minutes. Then he bagged his fourth goal of the campaign from the penalty spot just past the hour mark.

Armadale completed anothe surprise win as they came from two down to win 4-3 against Gwelup Croatia, with Angel Andres and Chad Nilson both netting twice.

Mitch Oxborrow arrived from midfield to score Gwelup's opener before Gustavo Marulanda doubled the lead when he broke the offside trap and finished expertly for 2-0.

Gwelup threw away a two-goal advantage last week and things took a turn with Hasani Sinclair's handball and subsequent red card. Andres scored the resulting penalty and the striker headed in Brian Patterson's cross for 2-2.

Nilson climbed highest in the area to loop Friday Zico's ball from deep into the back of the net and the Armadale substitute struck again for 4-2 before Jon Stynes' late consolation from the penalty spot.

Inglewood United moved to within two points of the top four as two Steve Sokol goals gave them a 2-1 come-from-behind win against Perth Glory.

That result, paired with Sorrento's 1-1 draw with Bayswater City, means the race for fourth has opened up with six points separating fourth to 11th in the league.

Glory, who had won their last three, went in front through Aidan Coyne's second goal in three games, a header from Giordano Colli's corner.

But Sokol ensured Inglewood's unbeaten run stretched to five with a super strike into the corner on 65 minutes before moving joint-second in the Golden Boot race with his seventh of 2021 from the penalty spot on 72 minutes.

At Percy Doyle Reserve, Gordon Smith backed up last week's late equaliser when he opened the scoring on 29 minutes, doing it all himself before striking past Connor Campbell at the second attempt.

Jordan Brown headed in the equaliser after the interval, but the Gulls have now dropped points in their past four as the chasing pack for finals positions drew closer.