Inglewood United defeated Stirling Lions for the first time in three years by carving out a 1-0 success on a gloomy afternoon at Macedonia Park. The games solitary goal arrived midway through the first half via Alex Salmon, whose penalty conversion moves Inglewood into fourth position on the National Premier Leagues ladder.
Speaking post-game, the Inglewood custodian said it was an important result. “We played good in patches but they were putting a lot of pressure on us at the end,” Dunn said. “We managed to stay firm as a team and games like this, when it’s wet and windy and need to grind out a result, will help us go a long way this season.”
Dunn found himself in the thick of first half action, turning away a pair of David Micevski free-kicks and palming Alex Tanevski’s drive over the crossbar. So it was against the run of play that Salmon fired Inglewood into the lead from the spot after Ellis Healing’s run was illegally halted inside the 18-yard.
Stirling started the second half positively with Steve Sokol this time denied by Dunn. It was a warning that was heeded and thanks to David Cyrus and Connor Becsi the hosts would create few further genuine chances. At the other end of the park Kenny Kenny twice had long-range strikes deflected wide of the target.
With ten minutes remaining Salmon stroked into an empty net only for his effort to be discounted by the referee for a foul on ‘keeper Pasquale Gioffre in the lead-up. A late surge saw Liam Henderson go close to steeling a point for Stirling but Dunn again proved the hosts foil by keeping out the acrobatic effort.
Match stats
Stirling Lions 0
Inglewood United 1 (Alex Salmon 28)
Stirling Lions: Pasquale Gioffre, Alex Suleski, Liam Henderson, Darren O’Riordan, David Filippou, David Molinari, Dhhors Chol, Dejan Spaseski, Steve Sokol, Alex Tanevski (Ben Campbell 70), David Micevski
Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Alex Ishida-Livings, Connor Becsi, David Cyrus, Hanafi Ghazali (Miki Vujacic 46), Jamie Murphy (Ash Rosindale 66), Brian Farrell, Jason Barrera, Ellis Healing (Brian Woodall 87), Kenny Keogh, Alex Salmon
Bookings: Ghazali (5), Molinari (43), Cyrus (60), Spaseski (60), Keogh (82)
Dismissals: Nil
