Mandurah’s Gerrad Burke suffered a moment of lunacy as he received marching orders for stomping on Armadale’s Rhys Loxley in a quarter-final that was as notable for its feistiness, player heckling and blustery conditions.

The quarter-final fixture was a physical confrontation from the start, with full-blooded challenges from each side resulting in a total of five bookings and the one red (there could have been more cards issued with little complaint as well).

Armadale ran out worthy 3-0 winners on the balance of play, although Mandurah coach Billy Russell had issue with how easy the first two goals were conceded.

“The first goal was very soft due to a lack of concentration in defence and we should have comfortably dealt with the first strike before the second that resulted in the penalty [for handball],” he said.

The opener was a talking point mainly for how easily Rav Kuppusamy found his free header just three yards off the line from a simple deflected cross that should have initially been dealt with.

Armadale utilised the intense wind to peg Mandurah back for much of the first half, frustrating the team and looked likely to add to their tally were it not for the blood and thunder performance from Mandurah’s midfield dynamo Alex Randell.

Randall was a constant thorn in Armadale’s side with superb tackling, distribution, and winning everything in the air, all the more impressive considering he was the shortest player of either side in the midfield.

In the fleeting moments Mandurah got the ball forward, they found it difficult to capitalise and started off with one of their standout forwards from last week (Trevor Alli-Laure) on the bench.

Alli-Laure was introduced into the fray when captain Craig Young suffered an injury early in the first half to little effect and was substituted off again at half time.

Russell said the decision to drag Alli-Laure after 25 minutes on the field was disciplinary based.

“Trevor was late which is why he didn’t start and when he came on he was operating on another planet today, so we took him off at half time.”

Armadale assistant coach Kevin Brophy was happy with the result but felt the performance might have been better.

“The team’s still developing and isn’t where we want to be just yet, and we know we’ve got more to offer,” Brophy said.

“Having said that, the second half against the wind could have been a problem for us but we handled it well and kept their chances at a minimum.”

Loxley capped off a great all-round performance with a goal in the dying minutes of the match when cutting in from the right to beat his man and finish in the bottom right-hand corner to book a semi-final appearance for Armadale.

Brophy said “today was a potential banana skin for us with Mandurah coming as underdogs looking to cause an upset.

“The roles are reversed now and we’ve got nothing to lose, so we’ll be looking to get something out of the match against the odds.”

Mandurah City SC 0
Armadale SC 3 (Kuppusamy 17’, 49’ pen, Loxley 90’)
Sunday 17 February, 2013
Percy Doyle, Duncraig
Kick-off: 5:00pm
Referee: P. Anderson,
Assistant referees: S. Mannella, J. Nixon, M. Williams
Crowd: Appx 200

Mandurah City SC: Matt NAMNETT (gk), 2. Adam EVANS, 5. Liam HURST, 6. Mark McGLAUGHLIN 17. Alex RANDELL, 8. Matt STARES, 11. Craig YOUNG(c) (13. Trevor ALLI-LAURE, 20’, 4. Brent MAYHEW 45’) 12. Llyod JOHNSON 15. Daniel BROCKWELL, 9. Geeng AGUER, 10. Gerrad BURKE

Substitutes not used:Connor POWER (Rgk), 14. Blake DIGGINS,
Yellow cards: Alex Randell 55’, Brent Mayhew 84’
Red Cards: Gerrad Burke 66’

Armadale SC: 1.Cyril SHARROCK, 3. Jackson BEALEY, 15. Andrew BOWYER, 6. Nathan COSTELLO, 14. Mitch CASTRILLI, 5. Daniel CHADDERTON, 18. Louie BLAKE (4. Brandon CATCHPOLE 82’), 19. Jack SALTER, 9. Darren FRANCIS (10. Alan DARLINGTON 76’), 8. Rhys LOXLEY, 17. Rav KUPPUSAMY (16. Callum BARRY 87’)

Substitutes not used: Alex TAYLOR (Rgk), 13. Sam LOVELESS,
Yellow cards: Rhys Loxley 39’, Louie Blake 55’, Andrew Bowyer 73’
Red cards: Nil