Coach Taki Nicolaidis is calling on his players to find more of a cutting edge in front of goal when the National Premier Leagues commences this weekend.   Inglewood United has home ground advantage in Saturday’s opening round of the new season, which sees Floreat Athena make the journey to Inglewood Stadium.

It’s been less than month since the two teams came face-to-face in game one of the Night Series.   Brian Woodall opened the scoring on that occasion and the result could have been put beyond doubt had Inglewood made the most of their chances.   However, Floreat stole victory courtesy of long-range strike deep in stoppage time.

“We learnt a lot from the result,” Nicolaidis said of the 2-1 loss.   “We performed well against Athena and possibly should have got more out of the game.   What was very evident was that we were very wasteful in front of goal … we’ll need to be much more ruthless when chances come our way on Saturday.”

Nicolaidis, appointed head coach just over a month ago, is happy with where Inglewood are placed for the coming winter.   “I’m quite pleased with the progress we’re making and we need to keep building on these foundations,” he said.   “With all the off-season changes the playing group have adjusted very quickly which is important for any team to be successful.”

“Round One is always a big game, it’s what we work towards during the three months of pre-season.   If we are to be competitive this year and finish in the top four then it’s very important we get off to a good start, as I would rather bank the points early in the season instead of playing catch up later in the year.”

National Premier Leagues, Round 1

Inglewood United vs Floreat Athena
Saturday 19 March @ Inglewood Stadium

Kick-off times

First team 7.00pm
Under-20s 5.00pm
Under-18s 3.00pm