Men's NPL Night Series final: Inglewood United v Olympic Kingsway
Saturday will see Inglewood United and Olympic Kingsway go at it for the second time in a fortnight with the Men’s NPL Night Series on the line.
Their group stage clash near the end of last month finished all square, enough to confirm both sides’ progression to the semi-finals.
Now it’s a winner-takes-all decider at Frank Drago Reserve.
For Inglewood, this is an opportunity for a second Night Series success in three seasons, following their 2-0 win over Perth SC in 2021.
Victory for Olympic, meanwhile, would be an eye-catching way to enter their maiden NPL campaign, and first in the top flight in over 20 years.
It would also bring a welcome change of fortune after three successive Night Series finals defeats – all in the State League.
Not that skipper Shane Cassidy is too worried.
“Of course we’re happy to get to the final, it’s a good achievement and a nice surprise, and we’ll be doing what we can to win it,” he said.
“Hopefully we’ll change the bad luck we’ve had the last few years. But if it goes like last year where we lost the final and won the league, we’ll probably end up taking that!”
Kingsway were certainly dominant in winning the Division One title last year. And they looked the part in beating Armadale 3-0 in last week’s semi-final. But Cassidy, an NPL winner with ECU Joondalup, has been around long enough to know what lies ahead.
“Opposition-wise, there are just better players,” he said. “In Division One you have one or two teams you’d expect to beat, but in this league every side has one or two stand-out players and any team can punish you.”
Inglewood skipper Alex Dunn will testify to that after their semi-final scare against Stirling Macedonia. Two-nil up and sitting pretty, United were pegged back and heading for penalties until Dylan White’s winner in the 96th minute.
“It was an exciting game but I was a bit disappointed,” Dunn said. “We were 2-0 up and made it a bit hard for ourselves, it would have been nice to finish it off like Olympic, 3-0. Credit to Stirling, they fought back, but the lads showed character to get the winner in the end.”
Dunn added: “We’re scoring goals again, which is good. Last year we struggled a bit so that was a big focus this year, to bring in additional players in the forward line and midfield. Michael Domfeh has come in, he’s been good and scored a few goals. We’ve also got Dylan White from Western Knights, who scored the winner on the weekend, and some of the others have been doing well too.”
Dunn said Inglewood began their pre-season preparations later than usual and it seems to be paying dividends for Andres Oliveira’s outfit.
“We came back in the first week of January rather than November or December, and it’s going well,” he said. “We’re taking it one day at a time and building for the season.
“The Night Series is always good. I’ve played a few now and it’s always good to win. Playing in a final, that’s where you want to be, whether it’s pre-season or during the season, that’s what you play for. We’ll give it a good crack and hopefully bring home the trophy.”
Saturday's game kicks off at 7.15pm and is the second part of a double-header, with Fremantle City and Mandurah City meeting in the Men's State League Night Series final (5pm). Both finals will be live streamed on the Football West Facebook page.
