Graham Normanton won’t give up hope of playing finals football as long as Inglewood United remains a mathematic chance of qualifying. A four-game winless run has slipped Inglewood down the standings to ninth, with the gap on to fourth blowing out to twelve points following Saturday’s loss at Balcatta. Normanton could be forgiven for giving up on a top four finish, however, the Inglewood boss knows his team is as good as any in the league. “Until we have absolutely no chance of making the top four, I won’t rule out playing in the finals,” he said. “With our best team on the pitch we are capable of beating anyone.”

Normanton feels Inglewood created enough at Balcatta on Saturday to have taken something out of the afternoon. “We dominated large parts of the game in terms of possession and had some great opportunities to level the game just after half-time, but were very inept in front of goal,” commented Normanton, who has had to contend with a growing absentee list during the past month. “Scott Blackmore, Matt Danskin, Joe Pullella, Teeboy Kamara, Abdul Sesay and David Perich were unavailable for the weekend, I had a forward (Jarrad McNally) playing at left back and the loss of centre-back Scott Witschge after 30 minutes made things that little bit more difficult.”

Having entered the inaugural National Premier Leagues season with high hopes, Normanton admits being frustrated with how the winter is panning out. “I worked very hard during the off-season to put a talented squad together, so being unable to put my best team on the pitch has been very frustrating,” said Normanton, who expects his team’s winless run to finish sooner rather than later. “Over the league season the table doesn’t lie and we will give it everything we’ve got for the remaining games to put some respectability back into our season … we are a whole lot better than ninth.”