Balcatta Etna will look to bring their terrific away form to Grindleford Reserve on Saturday when they host Bayswater City in Round Five of the NPLWA – Men’s competition.
Etna’s form is one of the fascinating storylines of the first month of the season with Glen Grostate’s team winning three of their first four games to join leaders Floreat Athena on nine points.
It is the first time since 2016 that Balcatta have won three away matches in succession and Grostate says the run, and the style with which they have achieved it, have lifted the mood around the club.
He said: “I don’t think it’s a surprise because we’ve been playing some really good football, but I suppose after the Night Series there was some people who wrote us off, and that spurred us on a little bit.
“In this league you need a bit of everything, but what we’re trying to do is be consistent with playing attractive football, win, lose or draw, and we’re confident things will come from that. I think everyone is starting to believe now that we can win games and the feeling around the club is that they want to be back to where they were a few years ago.
“It was a bit of a rebuilding process in the Night Series when we were setting the way we wanted to play and the most important thing was stabilising the club and getting that respect back. But when you work hard and you keep going until the end of every game then things will eventually go your way and your luck has to change.”
Grostate arrived at Grindleford Reserve in the second half of last season with the club winless in the league and having exited the Australia Cup to Amateur side Emerald. But the former Floreat and Quinns head coach won three of the final five matches in 2022 to ensure Balcatta survived a tight relegation scrap for a second straight season.
Having brought in some trusted lieutenants late in the season, Grostate set about adding further experience to a talented young roster this year. He says the likes of Adam Tong, Trent Kay, John Kearney, Ryan Pearson, Jack Allen and Brent Griffiths have brought a difference in mentality.
“Winning is a habit, but also losing was a habit too. For the past few years the club was in a situation where it was losing games and having to fight hard at the end of the season to stay up, whereas now we’re trying to change the philosophy where we don’t want to be on the back foot and we take it to teams,” he said.
“At the end of the day, all those players have all won something and have been in successful teams, so these are big leaders who know how to win games.
“That’s what I’m finding has been a real difference for us this season in terms of having that experience, whether it’s for 50, 70 or 90 minutes. And that lifts standards, gives players new leases of life, and all players are now fighting for spots in a squad, which is a really good feeling at training.
“We’ve got a good mixture of younger and older players and we’re looking forward to every game we play. Everyone is buzzing around, and we want to ride this wave for as long as we can.”
Attention turns to Saturday’s meeting with Bayswater City, who got off the mark for 2023 last week with a 3-1 win away at Inglewood. This will be Balcatta’s first home game since the opening round of the season when they conceded two late goals to lose 2-1 to Perth Glory.
“I thought we were very good on the opening day against Glory but they got a last-minute winner on a day where a draw was probably a fair result. But we finished that game thinking, ‘Okay we’ve been beaten somehow, but boy we played some good football’ and that just continued into the next week,” Grostate said.
“We went to Inglewood full of confidence and I’ve just learned with this team that they won’t give up in any game. We’ve scored late winners against Inglewood and Kingsway, then scored early goals (last week) against Stirling and fought until the end.
“Now we’re back at home against Bayswater, but we’re ready for the game and looking forward to playing anyone. We will leave everything out on the pitch and will be fighting hard until the end for three points, because we wanting to be banking as many wins as possible while we’re full of confidence.”
Elsewhere, there is a meeting between fourth and first as Perth SC host Floreat Athena in the City of Vincent derby. Defending champions Athena have won their past three games to lead the division, but the Azzurri have lost only once in the league and will be buoyed by last week’s late winner against Perth Glory.
Third-place Glory will look to bounce back from that first defeat this season when they travel to Inglewood United. The youngsters will be without top scorer Corey Sutherland, who was shown a red card at Dorrien Gardens, while Inglewood are looking to snap a three-game losing streak and move off the bottom of the table.
Armadale are among four teams tied for fifth place with two wins and two losses to start the year. The league’s leading scorers welcome Perth RedStar to Alfred Skeet Reserve with this week’s visitors winning both matches last year by an aggregate of 9-2.
Sorrento and Stirling Macedonia are also two and two with the pair meeting on Saturday in a repeat of last year’s Top Four Cup semi-final. This fixture is a Sorrento home game, but will be played at E&D Litis Stadium as Percy Doyle Reserve continues preparations to host Haiti for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Cockburn City also have six points on the board and this week they head north to face Olympic Kingsway, who got off the mark in 2023 with three points last week against Armadale.
Fixtures
Saturday (3pm)
Armadale v Perth RedStar
Balcatta Etna v Bayswater City
Inglewood United v Perth Glory
Olympic Kingsway v Cockburn City
Perth SC v Floreat Athena
Sorrento v Stirling Macedonia
