Inglewood United will continue to build towards the season proper when they take on Cockburn City in the second round of Night Series fixtures. Inglewood kicked off the pre-season tournament last weekend by claiming victory over Armadale, and attack-minded midfielder Andrija Jukic says the focus is much broader than taking home another three points from Dalmatinac Park on Saturday.

“We’ve had a good pre-season, the squad is gelling and we’ve got a positive result from our first game,” commented Jukic. “Our focus is on getting another 90 minutes under our belts and building on how we want to play this season. That said, if we play to the standard I know we can then we will get the result we want against Cockburn.”

Inglewood gave a good indication of what they are capable in the first half against Armadale when goals by David Sesay, Kenny Keogh and Matt Izzo capped a dominant performance. “We played quite well in the first half, we took our chances and were rewarded with three goals,” commented Jukic, who admits his disappointment at allowing Armadale back into the game.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t carry it over into the second half. Armadale pushed and we made a few silly errors that we wouldn’t normally make. There were plenty of positives though. We had four different scorers (Ryan Clarke scored the team’s final goal in stoppage time) and, considering the heat and it being out first game, the overall effort throughout the 90 minutes was really good.”

Inglewood heads south on Saturday to play Cockburn in the second round Night Series game at Dalmatinac Park (8.00pm kick-off). Cockburn got the better of ECU Joondalup to the tune of 2-0 last time out, and Jukic is well aware that another performance similar to that against Armadale will be required for Inglewood the team to come home happy.

“Cockburn are very good side with some very good players. I’ve no doubt it will be a very competitive game and provide us a good indication of where we stand,” commented the midfielder. “Michael (Garcia) is using the Night Series to get us ready for the season … it’s not that important for us to win this game but we would certainly like to.”