Inglewood United coach Graham Normanton praised midfielder Koji Yamada as his four-goal haul gave his side a 4-2 win against Armadale in the second round of the Cool Ridge Cup on Monday.

Yamada secured a quick first-half hat-trick with all three goals coming in the first 20 minutes of the match.

Armadale were hard done by as they dominated the possession early on, but failed to track Yamada as he made his way into the box, where he reached Jason Colli’s cut-back, before firing the ball into the far corner of the net after just eight minutes.

The second and third also came from some poor defending on Armadale’s part, as Yamada found space in the six-yard box, scoring first with a volley, then a headed effort, putting Inglewood 3-0 up.

Yamada rounded out his scoring with a determined finish in the second half, in which he threw his foot at the ball as it bobbled around in the penalty area, taking a knock in the process, but eventually returning to the field and leaving Normanton with nothing but praise for his midfielder.

“Unbelievable isn’t it,” he said.

“He’s scored three great goals and then one through just sheer determination.”

“He’s got that in him, he’s a determined player, he doesn’t lose many tackles, he’s a good honest lad and he deserves all the success, because he really gives everything he’s got.”

Normanton explained that his Inglewood side went out with the intention to have midfielders break into the penalty area, and Yamada’s four goals proved that it had worked well.

Normanton was also pleased with his side’s performances in the two games over the weekend, having already beaten ECU Joondalup 4-3 just two days earlier.

“It’s a couple of wins on the trot in three days now (after a 4-3 league win against ECU Joondalup on Saturday),” he said.

“We’ve scored eight goals, which has always been a struggle for us over the last three months.

“We’ve got a lot of players out, we finished the game with virtually our reserve team playing.”

Armadale looked like a much improved side in comparison to their last few games, with coach Lee Bamber happy with his sides response after their disappointing 6-2 defeat to the NTC on Saturday.

“(I feel) a lot better than I felt on Saturday,” Bamber said.

“We asked for a response from our boys after we hit rock bottom on Saturday and at least we showed a bit of pride and a bit of heart today.

“When they scored three, I think they were the only three efforts they’d had on goal and we definitely dominated the first 25 minutes of the game.”

Armadale started the game with Alex Clarke who celebrated his 17th birthday with a goal in the first half to give Armadale a glimmer of hope at 3-1 down.

Clarke slotted the ball past the keeper after being put in on goal, despite protests of offside from the Inglewood defence, leaving Bamber proud of his young striker’s performance.

“He’s been absolutely outstanding today,” he said.

“That’s the future of our club and to see him go out there and do that was brilliant for all of us.”

Armadale felt the comeback was on as Billy Quincroft’s contested header from a corner was plucked out of the air by Inglewood keeper Francis Soale, before he landed on the wrong side of the goal line, forcing the linesman to flag for a goal.

Armadale then saw a goal disallowed, which would have brought them back to 4-3, but after a free kick to Inglewood was awarded instead, they never looked likely to equalise.

With the improved performance, Bamber is now setting his sights on next weekend, which he feels could be his side’s opportunity to return to winning form.

“We’ve got Balcatta in the next league game and we’ve got to be confident going into that,” he said.

“We’ve already beaten them twice this year, so we’ll be full of confidence and hopefully we’ll have a few of the players back.”

Armadale 2 (Clarke 22’, Soale 71’)
Inglewood 4 (Yamada 8’, 13’, 20’, 49’)
Monday 3rd June 2013
Alfred Skeet Reserve
Kick -off: 2:30pm
Referee: A. Fielding
Assistant referees: S. Knight, T. Dowle
Crowd: Appx 200

Armadale: 1. Alex TAYLOR, 2. Daniel RICHMAN, 4. Andy TODD, 5. Nathan COSTELLO, 8. Llewellyn BAKE (13. Trevor LAURE 82’), 9. Billy QUINCROFT, 10. Rhys LOXLEY, 11. Sean NICHOLLS (16. Brandon CATCHPOLE 72’), 12. Alex CLARKE, 14. Mitch CASTRILLI, 18. Ian MAGUIRE (17. Lance LOUVIE 62’)

Substitutes not used: RGK. Ellis HAWKSWORTH, 7. Raveshlan KUPPUSAMY
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil

Inglewood United: 1. Francis SOALE, 3. Matthew DANSKIN (7. Luke RANDAZZO 72’), 4. Shaun KILKELLY, 5. Rikki SMITH, 6. David PERICH, 13. Shane PICKERING, 14. Craig SIMPSON, 15. James SAMMUT (10. Jarrod McNALLY 55’), 16. Koji YAMADA, 17. Jason COLLI, 19. Michael BACZYNSKI (2. Anthony PAPALIA 87’)

Substitutes not used: RGK. Luke MARTINO, 8. Dario PAVIC
Yellow cards: Soale 38’
Red cards: Nil