Inglewood United surged to the top of their Night Series group with a muscular 1-0 defeat of neighbouring Bayswater City under lights at Inglewood Stadium.   A fiercely contested game looked destined to finish scoreless when Brian Woodall held off the last defender to lash into the net with just over ten minutes remaining.

The entertainment factor was high in a first half that had possession evenly shared and opportunities for both teams to go ahead.   But neither goalkeeper was in any mood to be breached, Alex Dunn keeping out attempts by Brian Farrell and Gustavo Giron-Marulanda while Fraser Greenwood twice got the better of Woodall.

Dunn again found himself in the thick of the action after the break, the home custodian brilliantly denying Giron-Marulanda and Andrija Jukic in quick succession.   Bayswater were slowly gaining the upper hand only to meet strong resistance from a defence marshalled by team captain David Cyrus and club stalwart Rikki Smith.

Inglewood were giving as good as they got and on 78 minutes snared the game’s only goal, Jason Colli’s long ball finding Woodall whose vicious strike from 14-metres went in via the crossbar.   The remaining minutes were tense, the home defence responding well to some red-hot pressure before the referee brought proceedings to a close.

Match stats

Inglewood United 1 (Woodall 78)
Bayswater City 0

Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Jason Colli, David Cyrus, Rikki Smith, Callum O’Connell, Josh Pereira (Ashley Rosindale 62),Tim Gould (Ryan Sardi 87), Mark Pritchard, Jason Barrera, John Migas, Brian Woodall

Bayswater City: Fraser Greenwood, Jack Jones (Andrew Reale 62), Jamie Coyne, Trent Kay, Sam Mitchinson, Borbor Sam (Alexander Wild 83), Todd Howarth, Jack Allen, Brian Farrell, Andrija Jukic (Hayden Doyle 70), Gustavo Giron-Marulanda

Bookings: Jukic (36), Coyne (70), Rosindale (80)

Dismissals: Nil