Inglewood United overturned a half-time deficit to record their fifth successive win, a 2-1 defeat of Cockburn City at Dalmatinac Park. David Sesay and David Micevski found the back of the net midway through the second period to cancel out Rory Patterson’s early opener, and consign to history their first round loss to the Cockerels.
“The guys performed really well, created some really good chances and played some really good football … I couldn’t be more pleased,” declared coach Michael Garcia. “We’ve closed the chapter from round one. I’d have liked to have won 5-1, we had plenty of opportunities to repay that score but we’ll take the three points. I’m very proud of the players today.”
Cockburn could not have wished for a better start with Patterson delicately lobbing over goalkeeper Aleks Vrteski after some neat approach work on top of the 18-yard box. It didn’t take long for the away side to return fire but Micevski and Andrija Jukic sent successive free-kicks too close to custodian Curtis Aspden.
Kenny Keogh’s powerful drive was pushed over by Aspden, who was beaten soon after by Micevski only for a goalline clearance to deny Inglewood an equaliser. Vrteski made sure Patterson didn’t double Cockburn’s lead by instinctively deflecting his opponents’ header onto the bar following a Harry O’Brien cross.
The second half opened much like the first, only this time Vrteski showed great reflexes in keeping out Julien Teles’ rasping drive. Inglewood resumed the attack soon after with Jason Colli getting down the right and delivering the ball to the far post, where Sesay tucked into the net with just over an hour played.
New signing Brian Woodall played a leading role in the deciding goal eleven minutes later by laying the ball off for Micevski, who rifled high into Aspden’s net from 15-metres. Team captain Jovo Pavlovic and Rikki Smith stood firm as Cockburn sought desperately for a way to salvage something from their afternoon, without success.
Match stats
Cockburn City 1 (Patterson 5)
Inglewood United 2 (Sesay 62, Micevski 73)
Cockburn City: Curtis Aspden, Harry O’Brien, Eamon McNelis, Blake Adams, (Liam Murray 71), Devon Gibson, Feisal Zaw (Kenel Mouithys 78), Alan Carroll, Jonathan Corness, Julien Teles (Friday Zico 66), David Araya, Rory Patterson,
Inglewood United: Aleks Vrteski, Jason Colli, Jovo Pavlovic, Rikki Smith, Jarrad McNally, Brian Woodall, Andrija Jukic (Matt Izzo 76), Tim Gould, David Micevski, David Sesay (Davide Panaia 87), Kenny Keogh (Mohamed Awad 78)
Bookings: Jukic (45), O’Brien (65), Carroll (66), Zico (85)
Dismissals: Nil
