A ten-man Inglewood United twice came from behind to scrape out a 2-2 draw from this evenings National Premier Leagues season opener against Stirling Lions.   Ellis Healing and David Cyrus brought their team level in the second half but only after Scott Robertson was dismissed at the half-time interval.

For assistant coach Saul Contera it was a very much case of two points lost rather than the one gained.   “We let ourselves down”, Contera told nplwa.com.   “We’re obviously happy that we fought back and showed character in the second half and got a point out of it, but our first half display wasn’t good enough today.”

The home side were on the back foot as early as the 3rd minute when Robert Petkov’s found the back of the net via Alex Ishida-Livings.   Inglewood’s should have drawn level shortly before the half hour through a Robertson, who fired disappointingly high at close-range after being found unmarked by Healing.

Stirling weren’t without their chances and had Alex Tanevski made more of a glorious opportunity just before the break then the final outcome could well have been different.   Stephen Gregory had just blown his whistle for half-time when Robertson clattered into Tanevski, prompting a straight red card from the referee.

Inglewood marked their return from the break by equalising through a delightful free-kick taken by Healing.   Alex Dunn then found himself in the thick of the action by turning away shots by David Molinari and David Micevski.   But there was little he could do in the 69th minute when Tanevski steered into the net.

That lead last all of four minutes before Cyrus’ powerful near post header from Healing’s delivery put the teams on level terms for a third time.   There were chances at both ends of the park to steal victory, however, with neither side able to covert their chances the points were shared.

Match stats

Inglewood United 2 (Ellis Healing 47, David Cyrus 73)
Stirling Lions 2 (Robert Petkov 4, David Tanevski 69)

Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Alex Ishida-Livings, Scott Robertson, David Cyrus, Scott Blackmore, Kenny Keogh, Hanafi Ghazali (Brian Farrell 46), Jason Barrera (Miki Vujacic 74), Ellis Healing, Steve Burton (Ash Rosindale 46), Brian Woodall

Stirling Lions: Lance Alavakis, David Molinari, Liam Henderson, Alex Suleski, Abu Dulleh (David Filippou 80), Alex Tanevski, Darren O’Rordon, David Micevski (Zane Casella 71), Matthew Cherrie (Dhhors Chol 60), Ben Campbell, Robert Petkov

Bookings: Cyrus (64), Molinari (73), Casella (73), Henderson (82)

Dismissals: Robertson (45)