Experienced centre back David Cyrus has billed this Saturday’s fixture with Balcatta as a must-win encounter.   Inglewood United heads into the weekend sitting sixth on the National Premier Leagues ladder, one point outside the top five and only five points behind second-placed Cockburn City.

Cyrus and his team mates have a difficult task ahead as they seek to close the narrow the difference between themselves and the top of the ladder.   “Every game is a must win, starting with Balcatta on Saturday,” Cyrus said.   “We want to keep the pressure on the teams ahead of us so that the gap doesn’t increase.”

“We cannot take any team lightly.   Balcatta have picked things up since the beginning of the season and have been playing soon good football of late, as their results indicate.   We have been working hard this week and monitoring Balcatta’s style of play ready to engage our game plan come Saturday.”

Inglewood have climbed steadily up the ladder over the past few weeks, defeating Forrestfield United, Perth Glory and Perth SC before stumbling at Joondalup United last time out.   Cyrus acknowledges that shock loss was a setback but he’s confident his team will respond in the best possible way.

“It was definitely a game that we have to forget and move on from,” said Cyrus of the 1-3 loss.   “We can’t expect results to come without working hard for them.   It was a tough week having three games in seven days but that is no excuse to not get some sort of result against Joondalup, who hadn’t won all season.”

“After last weekend no one is guaranteed to start against Balcatta.   Everyone has had their head down at training this week to fight and earn their place in the eleven.   We have a good squad of players and no matter what the make-up of the team is on Saturday we will be ready to go.”

National Premier Leagues, Round 13

Inglewood United vs Balcatta
Saturday 12 May @ Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium, Inglewood

Under-18s 11.00am
Under-20s 1.00pm
First team 3.00pm