…After Draw At Cockburn

The gloomy conditions at Dalmatinac Park were matched by Graham Normanton’s post-match mood after watching Inglewood United splutter their way to a 0-0 draw with a ten-man Cockburn City.   The away team dominated both possession and territory but their failure to translate that to the scoreboard prompted Normanton to label it Inglewood’s worst performance of the season.   “It was disjointed and there was a lack of application, I don’t really know why they decided to play like that,” Normanton told nplwa.com.au.   “I’m not stupid enough to think that we can play well every week, but the difference between our best performance and our worst can’t be a massive gap like it is at the moment.”

Blustery winds and intermittent rain conspired to ensure a dour first half of few goal scoring opportunities.   So much so that the first incident of note didn’t arrive until the 19th minute when David Sesay expertly got past Ross Diamond only to be tripped by the Cockburn player, the foul drawing a straight red card from the referee.   Inglewood were by this stage already well on top and it now seemed only a matter of time before the deadlock would be broken.   But the best they could muster were a couple of half chances which were sent wide of the target by Ryan Clarke and Andrija Jukic.

There was little change to the overall pattern of play after the turnaround and it wasn’t until the closing stages that the game began to ignite.   Liam Murray was unlucky not to put Cockburn in front with a superb volley that crashed against the underside of the crossbar and bounced back into play.   Jarrod McNally’s first activity after coming off the bench was to go through one-on-one with goalkeeper Dejan Aleksic, who breathed a sigh of relief when his opponents’ shot skewed well wide of the target.   Inglewood captain Andrija Jukic wasted a late chance to steal victory by blazing over the top from 9-metres after meeting Clarke’s cutback.

Normanton, who addressed his played in the centre circle after the game, says the single point was all Inglewood deserved.   “It was the worst performance of the season,” he said.   “The frustrating part is that we work hard at our game in training – we don’t just throw the team on there and say right lads go out and play, we work hard at our structure and our philosophy.   So for the players to go out and perform like that is really disappointing.   We didn’t deserve to win today (but) we’re good enough to bounce back from this, and we have to bounce back from this.”

Match Stats

Cockburn City 0
Inglewood United 0

Cockburn City: Dejan Aleksic, Oscar Thompson, Paul Natale, Euen Grant (Papar Kaptar 70), Devon Gibson (Julien Teles 89), Alan Carroll, David Araya, Eamon McNelis, Liam Murray, Ross Diamond, Jesse Fuller (Ryan Haslett 82)

Inglewood United: Luke Martino, Joe Pullella, Shane Pickering, Scott Blackmore, Jason Colli (Abdul Sesay 53), Ryan Clarke, Ryan Francis (Sean Browne 61), David Perich, Andrija Jukic, David Sesay, Teeboy Kamara (Jarrod McNally 78)

Bookings: Araya (87)

Dismissals: Diamond (19)

24.05.14