A strong performance has once again gone unrewarded with Inglewood United suffering a 3-1 loss to Floreat Athena on a blustery evening at Inglewood Stadium. Kenny Keogh’s second goal in three weeks was one of few highlights on a night when luck just was not on the side of the home team.
Coach Michael Garcia lamented his team’s inability to put points on the board. “We played really well today and I’m still a little bemused at how we lost 3-1,” he told footballwest.com.au “It’s a bit frustrating that good performances and good play don’t get rewarded – we conceded through sloppy mistakes of our own.”
Floreat were first on the scoreboard midway through the first half, Ludovic Boi finishing a move which started in his teams’ defensive half. But that lead was short-lived with Ryan Clarke knocking the ball on for Keogh to slot into the bottom corner of Dejan Aleksic’s net.
The half ended with a flurry of activity. Scott Witschge surged down the left and centred for David Sesay, whose shot was deflected wide. Soon after, Aleks Vrteski ensured the teams entered the break level by diving to his right to keep out Bobby Wilson’s effort.
Inglewood emerged for the second period determined to get the all-important next goal. And Keogh looked to have delivered the goods with a cheeky back-heel but Aleksic moved sharply to deny his opponent. Floreat returned fire just after the hour when Clayton Arnez netted from a lofted pass forward.
A rare error by Vrteski with eleven minutes to go gifted Floreat their third goal, the ‘keeper fluffing what should have been a regulation clearance with Boi finishing into an empty net. The loss leaves Inglewood in ninth position ahead of next weekend’s trip to bottom-of-the-table Armadale.
Match stats
Inglewood United 1 (Keogh 39)
Floreat Athena 3 (Boi 32, 79, Arnez 61)
Inglewood United: Aleks Vrteski, Jason Colli, Jovo Pavlovic, Scott Blackmore, Rikki Smith, Scott Witschge, Tim Gould, Andrija Jukic (Abdul Sesay 46), David Sesay (Aleks Jovic 76), Ryan Clarke, Kenny Keogh
Floreat Athena: Dejan Aleksic, Jack Allen, Bobby Wilson, Blair Govan, Dennis Galan, Andrew Scalaferro, Aryn Williams, Ludovic Boi, Clayton Arnez (Vincent Wiktora 76), Kris Gate, Steve Burton
Bookings: Wilson (15), Burton (37), Clarke (52), Blackmore (56), A.Sesay (71)
Dismissals: Nil
