Perth Glory and Inglewood United will head into the final two rounds of the NPLWA – Men’s season battling to avoid the one automatic relegation spot after the pair suffered heavy midweek losses.
Glory went down 5-2 at Stirling Macedonia on Tuesday while Inglewood were beaten 6-2 away to Bayswater City last night.
The fallout from the two rescheduled Round 19 fixtures is that Perth SC are safe, with Glory occupying the relegation play-off berth and Inglewood three points adrift.
Perth Glory are at Western Knights this Saturday and Inglewood visit Fremantle City.
Yet both sides will rue missed opportunities in their latest defeats, especially Glory who led 2-0 at half-time against Stirling. Tadiwanashe Kuzamba fired them in front with a fine rising effort before Daniel Jankuloski powerfully headed home the second from a corner.
But once Josh Bilaloski pulled one back early in the second half, there was a sense of inevitability about the outcome. Gyles Davies side-footed Stirling level, then Kai Matthews scored an excellent half-volley to make it 3-2. Substitute Ciaran Byrne completed the visitors’ misery with a late double.
Glory’s defeat opened the door for Inglewood to climb off the foot of the table for the first time since Round Two, and things could not have started better for them. After just two minutes Harry Evans met a bouncing ball from 35 yards and his speculative effort cleared Bayswater keeper Lewis Italiano and dropped under the bar.
That was as good as it got for Inglewood, however, and within three minutes they had given up the lead as Luke Palmateer’s header was deflected past Nic Speca.
Joshua Anasmo ran through unchallenged to put Bayswater in front before half-time, and less than 60 seconds after the restart things went from bad to worse for United as Chris Jackson’s shot beat Speca’s dive.
Inglewood threw themselves a lifeline three minutes later when Benson Nsegetse arrived at the back post to make it 3-2, but it was Bayswater who ran away with the game with further goals by Cameron Teece, Anasmo and Jon Stynes.
There was one other rearranged game from the weekend, and this also saw a team come from behind to win as Balcatta Etna beat Armadale 3-1.
Pieter Jacobsz continued his red-hot streak when he followed up to put Armadale ahead on four minutes with his 21st goal of the season. Jacobsz is six goals clear of his nearest rival Joe Knowles in the race for the Golden Boot and he has scored in seven consecutive league matches.
Balcatta equalised on 57 minutes through Ben Hinshelwood’s penalty, then hit the hosts with two goals in the final seven minutes to win the game. First Rostyn Griffiths thumped home a header, then Liam Hudson squeezed home the clincher.