Steely defender Jovo Pavlovic considers this weekend’s clash with bottom-of-the-table Armadale the perfect opportunity to re-launch Inglewood United’s season. Results so far this winter have more often than not gone against Michael Garcia’s team, which is locked in the bottom half of the National Premier Leagues ladder.

Over the past fortnight the player group has taken stock of their position and, together with the coaching team, mapped out a path forward. Pavlovic, who joined Inglewood during the off-season, says it won’t be long before results begin to go in their favour, and what better time to start that than now.

“It’s a must-win game for us,” asserted Pavlovic ahead of Inglewood’s visit to Alfred Skeet Oval on Saturday. “We’ve not had the best of starts to the season and we need to take points where possible, and Armadale is one those games. For us to take anything less than three points this weekend will be unacceptable.”

Armadale may be winless from seven starts but the recent appointment of former Wales defender Paul Price to the head coach role has renewed their enthusiasm. “It would be dangerous for us to underestimate them,” commented Pavlovic, who is tipping a tough 90 minutes. “They will be going out hard to get anything from this game.”

Pavlovic insists Inglewood is much better than their currently ranking of ninth suggests. “We deserve to be at the higher end of the ladder,” he said. “We’ve shown we can match it with the leagues better teams but so far we have nothing to show for it. You look at where we stand on the table and it really frustrates you.”

Despite that frustration, the player group remains upbeat and confident of climbing up the NPL standings. “It should only be a matter of time before we get things rolling,” said Pavlovic. “We haven’t clicked yet in terms of going forward, attacking and scoring goals. That will come in due course, and when it does it could be frightening.”