Ten-man Armadale defeat Lions

Report by Jayden Lihou

Pictured: Armadale captain Alex Castiello and Stirling skipper Brodie Martin with match officials before exchanging 120-year commemorative pennants. Football West News

Goals from two Ellis Healing free-kicks were the difference as Armadale ran out 2-0 winners over Stirling Lions at Alfred Skeet Reserve on Saturday.

The home side were dominant for majority of the match despite playing an hour of football with a one man disadvantage.

Armadale coach Paul Price was delighted with his team’s performance and their first clean sheet of the season on a weekend celebrating 120 years since the game's first organised matches in WA.  

“We played with 10 men for an hour and still created a lot of chances,” he said.

“The players also defended really well and overall we deserved to win the game.

“We hit the woodwork four times and had two or three more ‘scorable’ opportunities that we missed. So if we want to pick up more points this season we are going to have to start taking some of them.”

Armadale started the match on the front foot when Dannie Richman hit the crossbar after a goalmouth scramble in the 2nd minute.

An own goal from Stirling’s Graham Doran gave Armadale the lead in the 11th minute after a free-kick from Healing deflected off the defender into the back of the net.


Photo courtesy Jonny Warrington

Healing was involved in another chance in the the 33rd minute when he beat two players to make his way into the box but the resulting shot hit the woodwork.

Armadale were reduced to 10 men just moments later when Dylan White received a straight red card for a late challenge on Doran in the 35th minute.

Anthony Skorich made it 2-0 in the 64th minute when he headed home another well taken free-kick from Healing, much to the elation of the home fans.

Healing had the opportunity to kill off the game in the 79th minute when he found himself one-on-one with the keeper after a nice over-the-top ball.

However, the forward was unable to guide the ball past an outstretched John Perkins.

Stirling had a chance to pull one back late when Jason Rubidge found space inside the box after a quick one-two but his shot was just wide of creeping in off the near post.  

Price praised the efforts of two of his forwards, Anthony Skorich and Healing.

“Ellis was superb today, we know he’s a good player and today he had his best performance of the season,” he said.

“Anthony also did really well; he held the ball up for us, brought other players into the game and scored a really good goal.”

Stirling coach Rob Milevski admitted that his side failed to turn up in what was an ordinary performance.  

“I’m disappointed with the result, especially after Armadale went a man down from a poor challenge on our defender,” he said.

“In the first half we just failed to penetrate in the attacking third, but in second half we had some chances and were just unable to finish them.

“But in the end it was just a lack of concentration with the two set pieces that cost us today.”

Armadale 2 (Doran 11min, Skorich 64)
Stirling Lions 0
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Alfred Skeet Reserve
Kick-off: 3:00 pm
Referee: Matthew Southern
Assistants: Peter Kaiser, Jake Friend

Armadale: 2. Alex CASTIELLO, 3. Jake SARDELIC, 4. Jesse FULLER, 7. Papa KPATAR (9. Darren FRANCIS 72’), 10. Anthony SKORICH (17. Joe KELLY 81’), 11. Ellis HEALING, 12. Dannie RICHMAN, 13. Jackson BEALEY, 14. Dylan WHITE, 15. Nathan SMITH, 20. Alec RADONICH
Substitutes not used: 1. Alfie BRINCAT, 6. Shaydon PASSARACQUA, 16. Jordan CANDLISH
Yellow cards: Castiello 27’
Red cards: White 35’

Stirling Lions: 1. John PERKINS, 2. Michael PUGLIESE, 3. Teeboy KAMARA (12. Jason RUBIDGE 71’), 4. Blamo QUA QUA, 5. Graham DORAN (7. Milorad VUJACIC 43’), 6. Brodie MARTIN, 9. Robert PETKOV, 10. Daniel MICEVSKI, 11. David MICEVSKI, 14. David MURPHY (8. David SESAY 62’), 15. Shane CASSIDY
Substitutes not used: 20. Connor CAMPBELL
Yellow cards: Murphy 60’, Cassidy 64’
Red cards: nil




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