Report by Jayden Lihou

Floreat Athena and Forrestfield United both remain near the foot of the NPL WA table after a 1-1 draw at E&D Litis Stadium on Saturday.

Jonathan Stynes opened the scoring for Floreat in the first half before Hasani Sinclair levelled the scores with 30 minutes to play.

The away side looked the more likely to find the winner and came agonisingly close in the 92nd minute when a shot from captain Liam Merigan thundered off the crossbar.

Forrestfield coach Rod Banjac expressed disappointment with his side’s finishing but praised the performance of opposition keeper Jason Saldaris.

“I’m definitely disappointed with the result, I thought we had the game in the bag,” he said after the Round 14 draw.

“But I have to give credit to Saldaris, in my opinion he’s the second best keeper in WA and today he pulled off four world-class saves.

“We’re just missing the sharpness and the cutting edge needed to score goals but I’m sure that will come back soon.”

Forrestfield began the game on the front foot and should have gone ahead in the eighth minute after a through ball found Sinclair on the wing.

The forward made his way into the box before squaring the ball to Jordan Hart, whose shot was kept out by a quick reaction save from Saldaris.

Floreat took the lead in the 22nd minute when a through ball from Calvin Whitney cut open the visitors' defence and found Stynes who fired across goal to score.

The equaliser came when Sinclair went one-on-one with Saldaris before showing composure to find the back of the net.

The visitors had a chance to go ahead from a corner but the header from Jamie Street was cleared off the line. And another header five minutes later from Merigan was saved by Saldaris.

Sinclair then had a double effort in the 89th minute with his first shot being blocked and his second tipped over the bar by a diving Saldaris.

Sinclair was involved again in the final chance of the match as he laid the ball off to Merigan, whose shot from distance beat Saldaris only to thump the bar.

Floreat captain Dean Evans said his side needed to find greater consistency.

“To be honest they probably overran us in the second-half which is disappointing after such a good overall performance last week,” he said.

“Once they scored they looked to have a bit of momentum, our heads dropped and we had to back-pedal for the rest of the match," he said.

“We just need to put in a performance for the full 90 minutes and then we’ll have every chance at putting some wins on the board.”

Floreat Athena 1 (Stynes 22min)
Forrestfield United 1 (Sinclair 60)
Saturday, May 26
E&D Litis Stadium
Kick-off: 3pm
Referee: Nico Hoyle
Assistant referees: Darren Quinlan, Vraj Patel

Floreat Athena: GK. Jason SALDARIS, 2. Macro SANTA LUCIA, 4. Andrew SCALDAFERRO, 6. Jesse FULLER, 8. Jonathan STYNES, 9. Robert PETKOV, 10. Calvin WHITNEY, 15. Chris SALDARIS, 17. Dean EVANS (C), 18. Phillip ARNOLD (13. Hamza HINA 71), 21. Keylun POLLARD
Substitutes not used: RGK. Jordan BARBAS, 3. Ethan KETHRIDGE, 5. Declan HUDSON, 12. Ahadi ABANDELWA
Yellow cards: C. Saldaris 78
Red cards: Nil

Forrestfield United: GK. Luke MARTINO, 2. Wilbert TSHABANGU, 3. Leslie MARI (12. Callum DOBBS 61), 4. Jamie DUNCAN (8. Josh APPLEBY 46), 5. Scott BARKER, 7. Mitchell CROCKER, 9. Hasani SINCLAIR, 10. Jordan HART, 11. Liam MERIGAN (C), 14. Antoine LEMARIE (23. Rhys LOXLEY 51), 15. Jamie STREET
Substitutes not used: RGK. Benjamin PARRY, 6. Kristian DESPOTOVSKI
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil