Stirling Lions ground out an important 1-0 win over Armadale at Alfred Skeet Reserve on Saturday, despite having lost some match fitness during the three-week break since their previous All Flags State Premier League game.

Daniel Micevski scored the all important goal in the 33rd minute, which was enough to seal a win to keep Stirling level on points with leaders Bayswater City, who sit top only on the superior number of goals they have scored.

Stirling assistant coach Gary Williams felt his side had done everything they could to deal with the long wait between games after Stirling’s match last week was postponed due to a water logged pitch.

“We organised a full scale match on Tuesday because we wanted the lads to get some work in their legs and to be fair they worked really hard during training,” he said.

“I think at this stage of the season you’ve got to play week after week and just churn the matches out.

“It is difficult. We’ve had three weeks off and you do lose a bit of match sharpness and that’s why we made a few changes. We’re without Andy Todd today, Dean Evans and Jason Gavin, so we’ve been missing some quality players.”

Todd missed out on an opportunity to face his former club because of a sore knee, whilst Evans had just returned from Perth Glory’s tour of South Africa early that morning.

Despite the absentees, Stirling got the job done when Micevski was quickest to react following an excellent free-kick from Stirling winger Moses Kalau, which curled up and over the wall before hitting the inside of the post. The rebound fell straight into Micevski’s path and he had a simple tap in.

Armadale assistant coach Kevin Brophy was frustrated with how his side had conceded.

“We didn’t take our chances in the first half and conceded a scrappy goal,” he said.

“It is tough to lose to that goal. The one thing that we’re missing in our performance is that we’re not picking up the pieces at the other end. When the same thing happens to us we’re not reacting and it’s not going in.”

Armadale were unlucky as they saw an outstanding long distance shot from Sam Loveless rattle the crossbar, as well as a brilliant chance for Jason Pottier fired over the bar from inside the box - both in the first half.

In the second half, Stirling took control of the game and held the ball for long periods, during which Armadale rarely looked likely to score.

Sam Fuzik fired a brilliant driven volley that came off the post before rebounding to Kalau, whose first-time volley was acrobatically saved by Armadale keeper Ellis Hawksworth. He was again called into action soon after and made a last-ditch save with his foot to deny what should have been a game-ending goal.

A brief moment of concern came in the final few minutes of the game, however, when one final push from Armadale required some attentive defending from Stirling’s back line.

But the lack of fire power up front is an area that concerned Brophy.

“We’re missing a goal scorer,” he said. “We’ve lost Jack Salter. I think if he’d still been here we’d have won last week and we’d have won today.”

The defeat, coupled with Joondalup and Balcatta’s goalless draw, leaves Armadale close to the bottom of the league, which Brophy conceded was cause for concern.

“We don’t want to be bottom of the league but we’ve got Bayswater to come, we’ve got Floreat, Joondalup and NTC,” he said.

“We’re not afraid of anyone. Maybe against Bayswater and Floreat we can pick up a little bit of a shock that our performances have merited, and certainly with Joondalup and NTC we go in there 50/50. So, it’s down to us whether we get something in the last four games.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Williams reiterated his side’s goal of winning the league.

“We know that if we win the last five games then we’re champions,” he said. “We’ve got some difficult games coming up. It starts again with Sorrento next week.”

Armadale 0
Stirling Lions 1 (Micevski 33’)
Saturday 3rd August 2013

Alfred Skeet Reserve
Kick -off: 3:00pm
Referee: A. Fielding
Assistant referees: J. Fusari, P. Triandes
Crowd: Appx 100

Armadale: 1. Ellis HAWKSWORTH, 2. Daniel RICHMAN, 3. Jackson BEALES (10. Rhys LOXLEY 60’), 4. Nathan COSTELLO, 5. Billy QUINCROFT, 6. Lance LOUVIE (15. Jack BAMBER 71’), 8. Louie BAKE (17. Dennis GHYE JNR 76’), 11. Jason POTTIER, 12. Alex CLARKE, 13. Sam LOVELESS, 14. Mitch CASTRILLI
Substitutes not used: 18. Brandon CATCHPOLE, RGK. Cyril SHARROCK
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil

Stirling Lions: 1. Aleks VRTESKI, 2. James COGLEY, 3. Clayton ARNEZ (6. Mathew HAROLD 64’), 4. Michael PUBLIESE, 7. Milorad VUJACIC, 8. Andrew BROWN, 10. Daniel MICEVSKI (5. Tosh BOOYAN 74’), 12. Sam FUZIK, 13. Moses KALAU, 14. Gareth McGLYNN, 15. Phil ARNOLD (9. Rory GRANT 83’)
Substitutes not used: 11. Dennis GALAN, 20. Connor CAMPBELL
Yellow cards: Arnez 63’, Brown 24’
Red cards: Nil