Inglewood United suffered a heart-breaking 3-2 loss to Perth SC in this evening’s Night Series Group B game at Litis Stadium. It was a bitter pill for Michael Garcia’s men, who twice went ahead through Andrija Jukic and Ryan Clarke only for Perth to equalise on each occasion with Clarke Keltie stealing an unlikely victory deep in stoppage time.
“We were gutted to concede in the 93rd minute, that really hurt the boys,” said Clarke, who felt his team’s play across much of the match did not merit the result. “Garcia has us playing a really offensive game and tonight was a good indication of what we are trying to achieve. We didn’t deserve to lose or even draw, we should have won.”
Jukic posted the game’s first goal after 15 minutes, the midfielder receiving possession from Scott Witschge and, after touching the ball past the last defender, cleverly clipped over the goalkeeper. It looked as though that lead would be taken into the break when Mark Pritchard punished a momentary lapse in concentration on the stroke of half-time.
Inglewood’s attacking outlook was rewarded with a second goal just after the hour, Jason Colli playing down the right and into the path of Clarke who took the ball deep before arrowing into the net from an acute angle. Reece Vittiglia evened the ledger for a second time and, with the final whistle just moments away, Keltie decided the outcome.
“We played really well, created some great chances and should have got a result,” Clarke commented. “There’s still some work to do for us to play the way Garcia wants, but all the boys are passionate and driven so tonight’s performance should put teams on notice that we aren’t going to be happy with a top four finish this year – we want top two.”
Match stats
Inglewood United 2 (Jukic 15, Clarke 66)
Perth SC 3 (Pritchard 45, Vittiglia 78, Keltie 93)
Inglewood United: Aleks Vrteski, Jason Colli, Jovo Pavlovic, Rikki Smith, Scott Witschge, Ryan Clarke (Abdul Sesay 70), Scott Blackmore (David McNally 39), Matt Izzo, Andrija Jukic, David Sesay John Thornley (David Panaia 51)
Perth SC: Alex Dunn, Luka Njegich, Josh Wilkins, Josh Pereira (Andreas Theodosiades 54), Alex Castiello, Marco Santaluca (Rocco Pizzata 93), Reece Vittiglia, Clarke Keltie, Aiden Da Luz, Harley Orr (Carlo Coehlo 70), Mark Pritchard
Bookings: Pritchard (88)
Dismissals: Nil
