Inglewood United had to be content with share of the points for the second week running after being held to a scoreless draw by Stirling Lions at Macedonia Park.   A bumpy and waterlogged surface made for a scrappy game in which both teams had their chances but neither was able to break the deadlock.

Inglewood dominated the opening exchanges and were unlucky not to take an 11th minute lead through Adam Tong, whose powerful long-range effort bringing a fine diving save from John Perkins.   Taki Nicolaidis was forced into shuffling his attack soon after when a hamstring tweak led Brian Woodall to exiting the action.

Kenny Keogh was disappointed to direct the ball straight at Perkins after meeting Jason Colli’s pinpoint delivery.   And Perkins was Stirling’s saviour again on the half hour, moving sharply to save at the near post after Keogh latched onto Josh Pereira’s dead ball into the penalty area.

This same pattern flowed over into second half.   Ashley Robertson sent a free-kick to the near post where Tim Robertson’s clever flick was met by another instinctive save from Perkins.   Keogh’s goalbound strike was acrobatically kept out by the ‘keeper on 74 minutes with Rosindale again the provider.

It took until the closing stage for Stirling to flicker into life.   Substitute Jamie Gibson turned the ball over only for his looping volley to land on the top netting.   And in the final minute David Micevski sprayed high of an empty net after Alex Dunn was drawn out of position by Teeboy Kamara.

“I won’t say we were the better team but I thought we had the better chances over the 90 minutes,” Nicolaidis said post-game.   “David’s shot at the end; normally in those situations he’d bury that.”   The result maintains Inglewood’s place at the top of the National Premier Leagues

Match stats

Stirling Lions 0
Inglewood United 0

Stirling Lions: John Perkins, David Sesay, James Mathiang, Graham Doran, Brodie Martin, Blamo Qua Qua, Miki Vujacic, David Micevski, Lukas Da Lima (Jamie Gibson 70), Teeboy Kamara, Daniel Micevski

Inglewood United: Alex Dunn, Scott Blackmore, Adam Tong, John Migas, Jason Colli, Josh Pereira, Mark Pritchard (Jason Barrera 88), Calum O’Connell, Kenny Keogh, Ashley Rosindale (Scott Witschge 81), Brian Woodall (Tim Robertson 17)

Bookings: Kamara (33), Blackmore (37), Pritchard (66), Tong (68), Vujacic (91)

Dismissals: Nil