A dominant performance has gone unrewarded with Inglewood United pipped 5-4 on penalties in a pulsating Top Four Cup Major Semi-Final encounter at Perth SC. The loss means Inglewood will take on ECU Joondalup, who defeated Floreat Athena 5-4 in extra-time, on Wednesday night at Inglewood Stadium for a place in the Grand Final.
Brian Woodall sent the game to extra-time and, ultimately, penalties with a late strike to cancel out Clark Keltie’s first half finish. And although Inglewood by far the better possession across the 120 minutes they were unable to conjure what would have been a deserving second goal before referee Steven Gregory took to the game to the spot.
Coach Taki Nicolaidis said he couldn’t be prouder of his team’s performance. “We played some exceptionally good football but ultimately we didn’t get the result,” Nicolaidis said. “We kept possession and broke them down quite a few times, especially late in the second half. In extra-time we got in behind a few times, it’s just that final ball wasn’t quite there.”
Perth were on the front foot early with Frank Furfaro rattling the underside of the crossbar after just 5 minutes. David Cyrus responded by tightening his team’s defences while some tidy play through the middle of the park orchestrated by Jason Barrera produced several promising forays into attack for Inglewood.
But the breakthrough came at the other end, Keltie tucking to the left of goalkeeper Alex Dunn after receiving the ball from Furfaro. Woodall was unfortunate not to reply immediately, the big striker latching onto a long ball which he took inside the 18-yard box where Francis Soale spread himself well for the save.
The second half was less than a minute old when Keltie slid wide a golden opportunity to double Perth’s advantage. Inglewood were back on the attack soon enough. Substitute Ashley Rosindale flashed to the left of the target before Rocco Pizzato’s shirt pull on Woodall while contesting a header was allowed to go unpunished.
Scott Witschge had been on the park just a minute when he drove down the right and cut the ball back for Woodall, whose shot on the turn hit the base of the post before entering the net. In the second to last minute Barrera sent a dead ball deep into the area where Scott Blackmore could only steer is header straight at the ‘keeper .
Inglewood continued the onslaught in extra-time. Calum O’Connell twice had Soale at full-stretch, Rosindale bundled a corner in at the near post only for it to be disallowed, Woodall placed wide and Josh Pereira’s vicious strike was blocked by the defence. Then once it came time for penalties, it was Perth that held their nerve to take out the game.
Match stats
Perth SC 1 (Clark Keltie 31)
Inglewood United 1 (Brian Woodall 83)
Perth SC: Francis Soale, Alex Silla, Adrian Madaschi, Rocco Pizzata, Jordan De Leo, Matthew Milenkovic, Harley Orr (Thomas Jebb 71), Nick Ambrogio, Aleks Jovic (Dino Topcagic 60), Frank Furfaro (Vasco Da Silva 89), Clark Keltie
Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Scott Blackmore, Adam Tong, David Cyrus, Calum O’Connell, Tim Robertson (Scott Witschge 82), Jason Barrera, John Migas, Mark Pritchard (Josh Pereira 69), Kenny Keogh (Ashley Rosindale 61), Brian Woodall
Bookings: Orr (27), Rosindale (63), O’Connell (90)
Dismissals: Nil
