David Sesay ensured Inglewood United’s return to the winners circle by scoring one goal and creating another in today’s 2-1 defeat of Stirling Lions at Macedonia Park. Barely a minute was on the clock when the visitors went ahead through Sesay, who then teed-up Andrija Jukic for decisive strike early in the second period.
It marked a return to the form for 23-year old Sesay, who scored for the second time in four games. “Dave’s a quality player,” said coach David Garcia. “He’s probably been a little below what he considers to be his best, so I’m glad for him that he got a chance to show his potential.”
Inglewood were on the scoreboard within a minute of the first whistle, Sesay running onto Paul Zimarino’s lofted diagonal ball before beating his man and hitting a powerful shot past goalkeeper Joel Driscoll. The visitors nearly doubled their lead eight minutes later when Tim Gould’s deflection on Kenny Keogh’s shot flashed just wide.
Aleks Vrteski found himself in the thick of the action as Stirling began to respond, the ‘keeper thwarting Shane Malcolm, Robert Petkov and Steve Purton. However, the best opportunity leading into the break came at the opposite end where Jukic lifted disappointingly high of an open goal after Driscoll had saved David Micevski’s effort.
Jukic made amends for that after the turnaround, the midfielder firing in from 9-metres after Sesay skillfully surged down the left to deliver a low cross. The gap was brought back to a single goal three minutes later as Malcolm deflected Lawrence Shuruma’s header across goal with the ball coming off Vrteski before entering the net.
The game continued to be an end-to-end affair. Sesay’s curling effort was kept out by a diving Driscoll, who produced further heroics in frustrating Inglewood captain Jovo Pavlovic after he’d skipped past a couple of defenders. Vrteski was quick off his line to smother the feet of Teeboy Kamara as he sought to steal a late point.
With the win jumps Inglewood up the National Premier Leagues ladder to sixth, with Garcia vowing to play out the season with a view to 2016. “The goal is to blood a few young players and look to next season (regarding) which players are doing the team thing for Inglewood, so next year we can hit the ground running,” he said.
Match stats
Stirling Lions 1 (Shane Malcolm 56)
Inglewood United 2 (David Sesay 1, Andrija Jukic 53)
Stirling Lions: Joel Driscoll, Nathan Bowden-Hasse, Billy Quinncroft (Michael Pugliese 73), Tim Hill, Steve Purton, Teeboy Kamara, Brodie Martin, Miki Vujacic, Alen Patarov (Daniel Micevski 36), Shane Malcolm, Robert Petkov (Laurence Shuruma 46)
Inglewood United: Aleks Vrteski, Jason Colli, Jovo Pavlovic, Rikki Smith, Ryan Sardi (Jarrad McNally 94), Paul Zimarino, Tim Gould, David Micevski, Andrija Jukic (Scott Witschge 63), David Sesay, Kenny Keogh (Brian Woodall 81)
Bookings: Sesay (44), Gould (76)
Dismissals: Nil
