Perth RedStar extended their lead at the top of the NPLWA – Men’s competition to three points after they defeated Perth SC 3-1 at RedStar Arena.
Two goals in the final 12 minutes gave RedStar the points on a wet and windy Saturday in the west. Callum Salmon’s side have now won four of their last five games to steal a march on their rivals, scoring 17 goals in that stretch.
The Azzurri had won their previous two but this defeat in Danny Hay’s first game as Perth head coach saw them drop to seventh, although still only two points off fourth.
RedStar led 1-0 at the interval after Andy Higgins slotted home Chok Dau’s cutback, with Sam Cook’s penalty on the hour giving the visitors parity.
Then on 78 minutes Dau produced a sensational curler which found the bottom corner to restore RedStar’s lead, then Daryl Nicol’s customary goal following a goalmouth scramble made it three wins on the bounce.
Stirling Macedonia’s fixture against Olympic Kingsway was postponed and rescheduled to August 5 prior to the weekend. It gave Balcatta an opportunity to overtake their local rivals into second place and they did just that with a 3-1 win at Perth Glory.
Etna have now taken 19 of their 20 points this season on the road and are unbeaten on their travels since Round 19 last year. They took the lead at Larkhill three minutes before the interval when Kotaro Yamamoto dummied Liam Hudson’s cross and Ben Ford arrived to finish.
Japanese forward Yamamoto then went solo down the right in the second half and beat Luca Iovene with a skidding effort. There was an element of fortune about the sealer with 10 minutes left when Ben Hinshelwood played the ball off defender Lucas Cook and it looped beyond the helpless Glory goalkeeper.
Aiki Tsukamoto’s late screamer proved only to be a consolation as Glory lost back-to-back matches to sit ninth, just a fortnight after they were in the top four.
After successive losses, Armadale SC moved into the final Top Four Cup spot with a 4-0 win at Cockburn City.
Pieter Jacobsz slotted in the opener from the penalty spot before John O’Reilly’s side careered away with victory in the second period.
They made it two when Chris Jackson slipped in Tim Berger to finish low past the keeper 50 seconds after the restart. Englishman Jackson would assist again after an hour when his deep cross found Amir Ajan who hooked in on the volley from close range.
Ali Gholami’s curler was then followed in by Berger who wrapped it up as Armadale went fourth.
Cockburn, who moved into the Australia Cup preliminary semi-finals during the week with a 1-0 win over Gwelup Croatia, are now second bottom.
Elsewhere, Sorrento moved off the bottom of the league in spectacular fashion as they won 5-2 against Bayswater City at Percy Doyle Reserve.
The Gulls trailed inside two minutes when Gordon Smith headed in Cam Edwards’ corner, but Hugo Snowden got on the end of Clay Gibbs’ cross to tie it up soon after.
Right on half-time Steve McGarry’s team went in front when Joe Tweats’ free-kick was spilled by Tyler Wilkie and Gustavo Marulanda was on hand to score against the team he helped win three league titles.
Yet there was still time for Bayswater to level up right on half-time with Gulls keeper Connor Campbell deceived by Declan Hargreaves’ inswinging corner.
In the second half it was one-way traffic as Sorrento looked anything but a team stuck at the foot of the table. Skipper Dean Cummings made it 3-2 from the penalty spot six minutes after the restart, who scored a hat-trick against Baysie in Round One, completed his brace after receiving Cummings’ pass and digging out a low effort into the corner.
And another marauding run from Cummings led to Tweats squeezing a shot beyond the City goalkeeper and over the line to put Sorrento into the top half and within touching distance of fourth. Bayswater have now slipped to fifth having lost three in a row.
Defending champions Floreat Athena are also starting to make their move as Ludovic Boi’s late goal gave them a 1-0 win at Inglewood United.
Chris Tilson was adjudged to have fouled Noah Shamaki in the area with four minutes remaining and 2015 Gold Medal winner Boi did the rest from the penalty spot.
Floreat’s back-to-back wins move them within striking distance of the play-off picture, while the defeat for Inglewood sees them drop to the foot of the division in the week in which they reached the last four of the Australia Cup preliminary rounds following their 3-2 win at Fremantle City.
Round 12 results
Cockburn City 0-4 Armadale
Inglewood United 0-1 Floreat Athena
Perth Glory 1-3 Balcatta Etna
Perth RedStar 3-1 Perth SC
Sorrento 5-2 Bayswater City
Saturday 5 August
Olympic Kingsway v Stirling Macedonia (3pm)