Kenny Keogh scored deep in stoppage time to lift Inglewood United to a 2-1 win in this afternoon’s National Premier Leagues clash with Perth Glory. It appeared honours would be shared with David Sesay’s first half opener cancelled out by Dejan Spaseski when Keogh punished a defensive slip to snap the teams’ four-game losing streak.
Keogh, who ended a personal two-month goal drought, was delighted to repay the faith shown by coach Michael Garcia. “We’ve started a lot of games (playing) pretty good but we haven’t got the result,” the striker told nplwa.com.au “Michael Garcia is a great guy and so is the coaching staff here so it’s good to give them the reward.”
Chances on goal were few and far between in a brisk first half dominated by defences under the leadership of Jovo Pavlovic and Jacob Collard. It wasn’t until the half hour that either goal was truly threatened, David Micevski curling a dead ball around the defensive wall and onto the top of the crossbar.
This proved the catalyst for a frantic end to the half in which the teams’ netted win quick succession. Inglewood were first on the scoreboard through David Sesay, who lashed in from 15-metres after taming the ball on top of the area and creating a bit of space for himself.
Glory returned fire sixty seconds later with Spaseski playing a tidy one-two with Nikola Talimdzioski to go inside the area and drive low past Aleks Vrteski. The Inglewood custodian ensured the teams entered the break level by producing a superb diving save to keep out Stefan Valentini’s towering header shortly after.
The second half opened with a bang. Micevski shot too close to Jordan Franken after dancing the ball forward, then Collard’s thunderbolt of a free-kick rose over the top. But after those early opportunities the tempo dropped and the pattern established earlier returned with neither attack getting much in the way of penetration.
As the clock ticked down Inglewood began to pick a few holes in their opponents defence, thanks in no small part to good combination play between Keogh and Micevski. Keogh displayed great skill and control only to fire straight a Franken, who breathed a sigh of relief when Gian Albano hooked Micevski’s header from under the bar.
Keogh made amends a minute later by pouncing on Calvin Whitney’s failure to clear combining once again with Micevski before stroking into the bottom corner. The three points move Inglewood up the competition standings to sixth ahead of next Sunday’s trip to second-placed Floreat Athena.
Match stats
Inglewood United 2 (David Sesay 40, Kenny Keogh 92)
Perth Glory 1 (Dejan Spaseski 41)
Inglewood United: Aleks Vrteski, Jason Colli (Jarrad McNally 84), Jovo Pavlovic, Rikki Smith, Milan Ognjenovic, Mohamad Awad (Scott Witschge 23 (Andrja Jukic -61)), Tim Gould, Abdul Sesay, David Micevski, David Sesay, Kenny Keogh
Perth Glory: Jordan Franken, Gian Albano, Nathan Costello (Sean Troup 69), Jacob Collard, Jesse Lazzaro (Ross Millard 66), Walieden Ismail, Calvin Whitney, Dejan Spaseski, Sam McKearnan (Daniel Stynes 81), Nikola Talimdzioski, Stefan Valentini
Bookings: McKearnan (29), Whitney (76), Gould (81), A.Sesay (84)
Dismissals: Nil
