Balcatta pay penalty as five-goal Armadale climb off the bottom

Abraham Mathet scored a hat-trick of penalty kicks as Armadale picked up their first win of the 2026 New Balance NPL WA Men’s season by beating 10-man Balcatta Etna 5-0.

The Army’s Round Nine victory sees them move off the bottom of the league and two points clear of Etna, who replace them at the foot of the table.

Mathet’s opener came from the spot on 12 minutes after he was brought down by Etna goalkeeper Riley Stephenson, who was booked for his troubles.

Stephenson was then sent off midway through the first half after collecting a second yellow card for another foul on Mathet, with the forward dispatching again from 12 yards this time against substitute keeper Chase Manning.

Luke Desmond’s curler early in the second stanza had Armadale well on course for three points, and they made absolutely sure of a maiden 2026 victory with two further goals.

Mathet completed a treble of penalties after James Fanelli’s handball on 63 minutes, and a late Chris Tilson own goal made it five as Armadale finally gave their season lift-off.

Elsewhere, Perth RedStar won their fourth game in a row to go top of the league with a 4-1 victory over Sorrento FC on Friday night.

An early own goal got RedStar rolling with Aaron Black’s cross turned into his own net by Gulls defender Manolo Veneracion. The lead was doubled when Gordon Smith teed up Black, who saw his effort saved by Ben Ratajczak with Liam Murray there to put in the rebound.

Sorrento gave themselves a shot at a comeback early in the second half when Dean Cummings picked out Kyunghwan Kim to fire home from just inside the box.

Black restored the hosts' two-goal cushion with 20 minutes remaining with the exclamation mark applied by youngster Teddie Curran late on.

RedStar’s win has them three points clear at the summit, while Sorrento sit a point outside of the top four despite their four-game winning streak coming to an end.

Bayswater City are now second in the standings on goal difference after a thrilling 3-2 win over Olympic Kingsway on Friday that saw them leapfrog their opponents.

Olympic were off to a flyer inside three minutes as Tyler Garner slipped a pass through for Rob Harker to slot in his fifth goal of the campaign.

Bayswater bounced back and levelled when Daniel Stynes’ superb pass picked out Brent Quick, who brought the ball down and bagged his first goal for the club.

Chris Jackson was denied one-on-one by Adrian Sinagra soon after, but the striker’s stooping header from Declan Hughes’ cross later in the half put Matt Sparrow’s side 2-1 up at the interval.

Harker had two good chances to pull Kingsway level, which he put over the bar. The visitors got their equaliser on 76 minutes though when substitute Will Ferson crashed in after Ollie Annis’ cross dropped in the winger's path.

The game was there for the taking and Baysie had the final say as Quick burst forward from the back and pushed a pass through for Sean McManus to dink coolly past an onrushing Sinagra.

That gave the reigning champions a third win on a spin, while Kingsway saw skipper Mitch Oxborrow dismissed late on and drop to third following one win in their last four league games.

Stirling Macedonia missed the chance to go second after going down 4-3 at home to Dianella White Eagles.

It was a happy return to Macedonia Park for former Stirling head coach Ian Ferguson, who guided both teams to promotion from Division One. His current side made an excellent side with Albert Luwi’s header and Sasa Njegic’s piledriver putting Dianella 2-0 ahead after 22 minutes.

Stirling struck back before half-time when Pacifique Dufitimukiza squared for Callum McKenzie to put in goal number eight of the season.

And it got even better for the home side as Bayley Brown-Montgomery and Josh Bilaloski scored from close range in the first five minutes of the second half to see Stirling 3-2 up.

But Dianella were not done and Franc Gamiz Quer rolled in at the back post from Njegic’s free-kick to level matters again.

Then Asher Nelson later emerged as the matchwinner against his former side by finishing off a flowing move with 11 minutes remaining. That goal lifts Dianella seven points clear of the relegation places and puts them just one win outside of the top four.

Perth Glory also kept themselves clear of the bottom two after defeating Western Knights 3-1 at the Sam Kerr Football Centre.

Louis Sollitt was credited with the opener despite his effort coming off a Knights defender on 11 minutes. But there was little doubt about the striker’s second soon after as he picked out the bottom corner from a great Santi Flores pass for his sixth goal of the season.

Jesse Lazarro’s swivel and shot got one back in first-half added time for Knights. But it proved to be a missed opportunity for Adam Kostrencic’s side to move back into the top four with Glory restoring their two-goal cushion a minute after the restart.

Shaun Mutyavaviri was the scorer as he rose to head in Maxim Uvarov's cross, with as the youngsters sitting four points clear of the bottom two ahead of next weekend’s trip to face Bayswater in Albany in the annual Belt Up Regional Festival of Football fixture.

Finally, Perth Azzurri and Fremantle City shared the points in a 1-1 draw, which keeps both sides in mid-table.

Freo made a fast start with new signing Josh Risdon debuting for the club and led on five minutes when Chad Nilson’s cross-shot was turned in from close range by Iljas Ahmedov.

Perth equalised 11 minutes into the second half when Jackson Morgan played through Gordon Perkins, who struck past Luke Radonich from a tight angle to make it 1-1.

Perkins for Azzurri and Freo's Nick Ambrogio both missed headed opportunities to win it in stoppage time as it ended all square.