Calum O’Connell considers Dorrien Gardens to be one of the toughest grounds to visit in the National Premier Leagues.   But don’t take that to mean O’Connell is feeling intimidated ahead of Inglewood United’s game against regular season champions Perth SC on Saturday afternoon in the Top Four Cup major semi-final.

“Dorrien Gardens is certainly a tough place to go to and get a result,” O’Connell said.   “Perth has a great record at their ground over the years and with that has come an expectation that they’ll win there.   That just provides us that extra little bit of motivation to go there on Saturday and knock Perth off.”

Inglewood did exactly that a fortnight ago when O’Connell and Ashley Rosindale were on target in a thrilling 2-0 win.   O’Connell feels an encore performance will be on the cards should his team go into the game with the right approach.   “We had a plan and stuck to it as a team – it was as simple as that,” he said of last month’s game.

“We were superb all over the park.   Every player had a job to do and every player worked incredibly hard to carry that job out.   We defended well as a group, we showed quality across the middle of the park and were a threat going forward … it showed what this group of players are capable of.”

O’Connell admits being pipped for the league title by Perth in last weekend’s final round of the season was hard to take, however, that is not something Inglewood are about to dwell on.   “The league is the bread and butter and when winning it is that close, well, it really hurts when it slips away,” he said.

“But we have only ourselves to blame – we had our ups and downs during the year and dropped too many points that we shouldn’t have.   There’s a lot of resilience in the squad and we still have the opportunity to at take some silverware from our season.   We’ll regroup, refocus and finish the year on a positive.”

Top Four Cup Major Semi-Final

Perth SC vs Inglewood United
Saturday 3 September @ Dorrien Gardens
Kick-off 3.00pm