Report by Aisling Lawless

Pictured: Bayswater City's Jason Mirco on the ball. Photo: Football West News

Defending champions Bayswater City proved they are still the team to beat after a 4-2 win over Stirling Lions at Macedonia Park on Saturday.

The visitors snatched a two-goal lead through Devon Gibson and Gustavo Giron Marulanda in the first half, before Robert Petkov scored for the Lions in the 36th minute.

A second-half goal from Alex Wild and another from Marulanda in the 91st minute was enough for Bayswater to maintain their lead throughout, despite David Micevski’s 87th minute penalty conversion.

While Stirling were hoping to get revenge for their loss in the QBE Night Series final, Bayswater had other plans and coach Chris Coyne thought they could have been four or five goals up in the first half hour.

“We made it hard for ourselves at times today because we didn’t do what we worked on all week,” he said.

“We’re not playing at 100 percent yet but we are still picking up points so we need to keep working hard and just polish and refine it.”

It wasn’t an ideal start for the home side who found themselves two goals down after only 20 minutes.

Former Cockburn City defender Gibson snatched the lead in the 10th minute after converting a corner kick, celebrating his first goal at the club.

“It’s pleasing for him as he’s been battling a bit of a back injury so it was great to see him notch for us,” Coyne said.

“Hopefully he remains fit and we can get him ready for the match against his old club next week.”

Eight minutes later Marulanda added a fifth goal to his PS4 NPL WA tally, slotting the ball into the bottom corner of the net after a perfectly timed run.

Keeper John Perkins helped keep Stirling in the game, closing down attacks outside the box and denying David Heagney’s one-on-one shot with a spectacular save with the tip of his foot.

The home side employed Teeboy Kamara’s pace up the wing and Micevski provided relief in the 35th minute with his low-shot finding the net.

Stirling started the second half brighter but their hopes of an equaliser were dashed in the 75th minute when Marulanda caught them on the break and passed to Wild who made it 3-1.

With only minutes to go the Micevski brothers collaborated as Daniel won a penalty and David converted it to bring the Lions one behind again.

But Marulanda had the last say, and sealed the score with another run on the break a minute into stoppage time.

While coach Rob Milevski thought the third goal was controversially offside, he said the Lions had given themselves a mountain to climb from the offset.

 “I thought we started poorly and let Bayswater have a two goal lead, and you can’t afford to do that against a champion team,” he said.

“We did get ourselves back into the game and created a lot of chances, but unfortunately a lot of the shots weren’t on target.

“But credit to Bayswater and Gustavo (Marulanda), with quality finishes, that’s something we’ll need to work on defensively as a team.”

Stirling Lions 2 (Petkov 36mins, David Micevski 87)
Bayswater 4 (Gibson 10mins, Marulanda 18, 91, Wild 78)
Saturday March 26, 2016
Macedonia Park
Local kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Adam Fielding
Assistant Referees: Shuo Chen, Amit Hosany

Stirling Lions: GK: John PERKINS, 3. Jovo PAVLOVIC (5. Graham DORAN 80), 4. Blamo QUAQUA, 6. Brodie MARTIN (c), 9. Robert PETKOV, 10. Daniel MICEVSKI, 11. David MICEVSKI, 15. Shane CASSIDY, 14. David MURPHY, 16. Abdul SESAY, 17. Teeboy KAMARA (8. David SESAY 60)
Substitutes not used: 2. Michael PUGLIESE, 7. Milorad VUJACIC, 20. Lance ALAVAKIS
Yellow cards: Pavlovic 68, Kamara 71, David Micevski 73, Daniel Micevski 75, Perkins 78.
Red cards: Nil

Bayswater City: GK. Fraser GREENWOOD, 2. Jack JONES, 3. Jack ALLEN (19. Alex WILD 70), 6. Todd HOWARTH, 7. Hayden DOYLE, 9. Gustavo GIRON MARULANDA, 10. Jason MIRCO, 11. Devon GIBSON (5. Andrew REALE 54), 13. Trent KAY, 20. Sam MITCHINSON, 21. David HEAGNEY (23. Andrija JUKIC 65).
Substitutes not used: RGK: Devon Spence 17. Taban MAKOII.
Yellow cards: Greenwood 92.
Red cards: Nil