Inglewood United’s seven-game unbeaten run has come to an end at the hands of nemesis ECU Joondalup. On a gloomy afternoon in the northern suburbs, the home team scored a trio of unanswered goals to defeat Inglewood for the third time this year.
Assistant coach Saul Contera lamented his teams’ failure to compete on the day. “We were extremely disappointed with our performance,” Contera told nplwa.com.au “We have set high standards over the past two months and we failed to deliver on those standards.”
“Credit must go to ECU who wanted it more than us and capitalized on a poor day at the office from us, which we need to bounce back from.” The loss slips Inglewood down the National Premier League ladder one rung to fifth, trailing Perth SC by one point with six regular season games remaining.
Inglewood were thrown onto the back foot as early as the 5th minute when Daryl Nicol curled a dead ball into the net from the edge of the 18-yard box. And ten minutes later things took another turn for the worst with Tommy Amphlett firing past Alex Dunn after cutting in from the left.
Ellis Healing came close to halving the deficit on the half hour but his shot from 16 metres was parried by Johnny Perkins, who blocked Brian Woodall’s follow-up effort. Dunn produced similar heroics at the other end to deny Nicol after he’d latched into a pass played through the visiting defence.
Inglewood twice threatened to open their account early in the second half. Healing picked out David Cyrus who headed past Perkins only for Adam Tong to clear from on the line. And not long after Jamie Murphy delivered to Brian Farrell whose low strike was taken by the Joondalup custodian.
Nicol put the result beyond doubt in the 78th minute following a well-rehearsed short corner routine which he finished by lashing past Dunn. A late Inglewood surge saw Woodall fire over the crossbar after good work by substitute Feisal Zaw, and a few minutes later Cyrus’ volley was also high of the target.
Match stats
ECU Joondalup 3 (Daryl Nicol 6, 78, Tommy Amphlett 15)
Inglewood United 0
ECU Joondalup: Johnny Perkins, Andy Higgins, Adam Tong, Kieron Stallard (Shane Cassidy 56), Cian Hirrell, Steven McGarry, Tom Hough, Gordon Smith (Brad McDonald 82), Ross Millard, Tommy Amphlett (Lukas De Lima 70), Daryl Nicol
Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Alex Ishida-Livings (Feisal Zaw 60), Connor Becsi, David Cyrus, Jamie Murphy, Brian Farrell, Jason Barrera, Ellis Healing (Scott Blackmore 84), Kenny Keogh, Brian Woodall, Ash Rosindale (Miki Vujacic 54)
Bookings: Cyrus (86)
Dismissals: Nil
Photograph by Peter Simcox
