McManus caps eventful day to sink former club Floreat

Report by Tommy Doleman 1742695003,1742884168

Bayswater City came from behind twice to win 3-2 at Floreat Athena as Matty Sparrow’s perfect start at the club continued in Round Two of the NPLWA Men’s competition.

Sean McManus scored the decisive goal seven minutes from time against his former side as Baysie bagged a late winner for a second successive week.

NPLM RESULTS, FIXTURES & STANDINGS

Athena led on nine minutes when Bayswater struggled to deal with a Jack Sprigg corner with the final touch coming off McManus who was defending on the line. But the visitors were level by the quarter-hour mark as Cameron Teece headed in McManus’ cross.

Floreat regained the lead soon after in spectacular fashion, as Daniel Khan’s unstoppable 35-yard screamer, above, flew into the top corner for an early goal-of-the-season contender.

Pat Loughrey’s penalty made it 2-2 early in the second half before Anthony Bafobusha and Khan were both shown straight red cards after a coming-together in midfield.

With both sides reduced to 10 men, it was McManus who won it on 83 minutes as Bayswater broke following a Floreat corner and the Scot raced clear to casually dink over Jason Saldaris.

The early pacesetters are Perth Glory as they won 4-1 at Stirling Macedonia to make it two big wins in two weeks.

Khoa Ngo’s sensational early season form continued as he slotted home a loose ball in the box midway through the first half.

Minutes later, they had a second thanks to a fine solo goal from Joel Anasmo as he cut in from the right, beat two defenders and finished with aplomb.

Samuel Dweh gave Stirling hope of a comeback two minutes into the second period when finishing his first league goal for the club after Joshua Bilaloski’s initial effort was blocked.

But Glory restored their two-goal cushion barely 60 seconds later thanks to Adam Bugarija’s low drive from outside the box. And Bugarija made it a brace with 20 minutes left after tiptoeing into the area and finishing emphatically to give the youngsters a perfect start to 2025.

Kingsway also made it back-to-back wins after a 2-0 victory at promoted Sorrento FC.

Mitch Oxborrow gave the defending champions a lead in first-half stoppage time when he spotted a gap in the Gulls wall to go low and direct with a free-kick from 20 yards.

The visitors left it until injury time to seal the win as Jayden Gorman crossed for Jonathan Leithead to apply a simple tap-in and continue the Green Machine’s good early-season form.

Meanwhile, Perth RedStar and Armadale shared the points with the 1-1 scoreline which made it two draws in two weeks for the pair.

RedStar’s opener inside 10 minutes came in direct fashion as Liam Reddy’s long pass reached Joel Chianese with the former Perth Glory forward squaring for Daryl Nicol to make it two goals in two games.

Armadale rescued a result late on though as Pieter Jacobsz got the better of Blair Govan and squared for Masatoshi Takeshita to bag his first goal for the club.

Saturday’s other result saw Western Knights break Balcatta hearts 1-0 thanks Harry O’Brien’s stoppage-time winner.

It was O’Brien’s first goal since joining from Cockburn as he picked up Jesse Lazzaro’s threaded through pass to finish one-on-one past the goalkeeper.

On Friday night, 10-man Perth SC made it two wins from two after defeating Fremantle City 2-1 at Dorrien Gardens.

Ethan Banks’ corner was met by an unmarked Luka Hirninger on 21 minutes as Perth had the better of the first half, but only one goal to show for their efforts.

Former Azzurri striker Sam Cook levelled with an instinctive strike into the bottom corner on 57 minutes, but Michael Scafetta won it for the hosts just past the hour mark when following in after Luke Radonich saved from Gordon Perkins.