An Ellis Healing goal minutes from the final whistle has earned Inglewood United their second draw in eight days. It was looking as though Subiaco AFC would go home from Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium with all the points when Healing spectacularly cancelled out David Perich’s early second half finish.
Coach Andy Keogh found it difficult to hide his frustration following the final whistle. “Our performance was under-par to be honest,” said Keogh, whose team have drawn their first two games of the new National Premier Leagues campaign.
“We had the chances but fair play to Subiaco, they battled well and held on to their lead at the end. We need to listen to the game plan and implement what we work on all week. We worked on wingers staying wide and creative players getting into pockets, but it just didn’t happen today.”
The first half was relatively even in terms of possession, but it was Inglewood that carved out the better goalscoring opportunities. Ash Rosindale’s glancing header on 12 minutes brought a fine reflex save from Ryan Montgomery. And not long after Hanafi Ghazili’s delivery into the 6-yard box was narrowly beyond Brian Woodall.
Healing was denied at close-range by Montgomery who, thirty seconds later, had the fast back-tracking Nathan Smith to thank for preventing Woodall from opening the scoring. For their part, Subiaco won themselves numerous corners but home custodian Alex Dunn remain unchallenged at the break.
That changed within minutes of the restart when Perich gave Subiaco the advantage by slotting into the net. And the hosts predicament would have been significantly more dire if not for Dunn, who brilliantly turned away Daniel Pearce’s fierce shot on 55 minutes.
Woodall blasted a golden opportunity high of the target from 9-metres as Inglewood pressed to draw level. That persistence paid off with four minutes remaining when Woodall’s long thrown was nodded on by Brian Farell to Healing, whose stunning bicycle kick crossed the line via the underside of the crossbar.
Match stats
Inglewood United 1 (Ellis Healing 86)
Subiaco AFC 1 (David Perich 48)
Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Alex Ishida-Livings (Miki Vujacic 55), Rikki Smith (Feisal Zaw 82), David Cyrus, Brian Farrell, Kenny Keogh, Hanafi Ghazali, Jason Barrera, Ellis Healing, Ash Rosindale (Steve Burton 53), Brian Woodall
Subiaco AFC: Ryan Montgomery, Nathan Smith, Steve Purton, Alex Castiello, Jackson Dongray, Josh Booysen (Albert Luwi 68), Alex Randell, Ross Jarman, Asher Nelson, David Perich, Daniel Pearce (Fannuel Dawit 90)
Bookings: Booysen (60), Cyrus (72), Randell (78), Ghazli (80)
Dismissals: Nil
