A brace from Alex Salmon has guided Inglewood United to a deserved 3-1 win over Balcatta on a warm afternoon at Perth Plasterboard Centre Stadium.   Salmon scored either side of the break before Kenny Keogh sealed the win and reclaimed Inglewood’s place in the National Premier Leagues top five.

“We were a bit sloppy in the first half hour but once some of our players picked up the tempo we controlled the game and should have won by even more,” said coach Andy Keogh, who was particularly pleased with Salmon’s performance.   “He was linking the play very well and took his chances in front of goal excellently.”

Inglewood opened by launching a series of attacking raids, the best of which saw Salmon nod wide from Hanafi Ghazali’s delivery.   However, as has been the case often this season, the breakthrough came at the opposite end where Kris Gate slotted into an empty net after evading oncoming goalkeeper Alex Dunn.

This failed to snap the hosts momentum.   Keogh curled narrowly beyond the top corner, Salmon crashed into the upright and Farrell’s long-range effort was parried by Kyle McDonald.   That persistence was rewarded on 41 minutes when Salmon stooped to head in Keogh’s delightful dipping cross.

It was more of the same after the interval from Inglewood.   David Cyrus nodded narrowly wide before a fierce Jason Barrera strike rose over the crossbar.   Salmon put the hosts in the driving seat midway through the half by arrowing beyond McDonald’s reach after the ‘keeper parried another shot by Barrera.

Keogh made the points safe soon after by glancing in Ellis Healing’s cross from the left.   A superb last-gasp tackle by Barrera prevented Anton De Francesh from cutting the deficit.   Brian Woodall should have added his name to the scoresheet but, with two minutes remaining, blasted across the face of goal

Match stats

Inglewood United 3 (Alex Salmon 41, 67, Kenny Keogh 74)
Balcatta 1 (Kris Gate 12)

Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Alex Ishida-Livings (Miki Vujacic 52), Connor Becsi, David Cyrus, Hanafi Ghazali, Kenny Keogh (Fiesal Zaw 81), Jason Barrera, Ellis Healing, Jamie Murphy (Brian Woodall 58), Brian Farrell, Alex Salmon

Balcatta: Kyle McDonald, Joseph Marino, Tom Pellizzari (Dejan Andric 75), Hayden Stevens, Shubham Mokala, Carmelo Giuffre (Tom Logan 60), Adriano Jelanovic (Anton De Francesh 53), Jonathan Corness, Kris Gate, Calum O’Connell, Lawrence Shurama

Bookings: Becsi (19)

Dismissals: Nil