Club captain Jovo Pavlovic has called on his teammates to raise their game as Inglewood United for the final third of the National Premier Leagues season. This time last month Inglewood were in the midst of a five-game winning streak which elevated them to fourth on the competition standings.

But three losses on the bounce have slipped the side to eighth on a congested table, which has the team only two points adrift of fifth position. Pavlovic is adamant Inglewood has enough quality to regain their place in the top four but says now is the time to perform if they’re to achieve that goal.

“We know what we are capable of and we’ll return to the winners circle sooner rather than later,” Pavlovic stressed. “To do that we need to stay focused, make sure we take our chances in front of goal when they come and play with intensity for the full game, as opposed to the 75 or 80 minutes that we’ve been putting in.”

“We’ve not been playing any worse than when we were on a winning streak, I actually think we’ve played some great football in the past three games. Unfortunately we’ve not played that great football consistently over the 90 minutes. It’s been a combination of us switching off for short spells and some questionable decisions that’s cost us.”

Pavlovic takes the team north this weekend to play FFA Cup (WA) finalists Sorrento, where he’s expecting another difficult game. “Sorrento is never an easy team to play against, especially when it’s on their turf as the pitch suits their style of playing,” said Pavlovic, who has lost twice to Sorrento already this year.

“It’s time we turn the tables on Sorrento. They’ve done us twice this year already and on both occasions they were the better team. We’re coming off a few of the tougher games and I’m confident that will give us the edge over them. We need to get a result on the weekend – there’ll be no excuses this time around.”