Super-sub Adrian Caceres struck twice in the second half as Bayswater City struggled to fight off a youthful and resilient Perth Glory outfit, who threatened to end the home side’s 100% winning start to the NPL WA campaign. They have now won nine in a row.
Super-sub Adrian Caceres struck twice in the second half as Bayswater City struggled to fight off a youthful and resilient Perth Glory outfit, who threatened to end the home side’s 100% winning start to the NPL WA campaign. They have now won nine in a row.
After a goalless first half, the game sprang into life on the hour when Caceres, a 29th minute replacement for Steve Burton, found the net via a big deflection off Glory defender Scott Robertson.
Glory took just three minutes to reply, Joe Knowles levelling before Caceres grabbed the winner with eight minutes left on the clock.
But Coyne was quick to praise the effort of the visiting Perth Glory outfit, which consisted mainly of 17-19 year olds, and only Matt Davies, who limped off after just five minutes, with A-League experience.
“I reckon a draw would have been a fair result. That’s the first game I can honestly walk away from and say we didn’t deserve to win,” Coyne said.
“Credit to them. They kept at it but we were just not at the races – apart from the first 20 minutes where I thought we were very good. After that we didn’t play football, didn’t pass the ball and didn’t do what we’re good at. We were lucky to get away with it and we’ll take it”.
The game took a while to get going, and it wasn’t helped when in the fifth minute Glory’s Davies stayed down following a rather rash challenge. Bayswater forward Burton could probably count himself fortunate to have remained on the pitch with just a caution to his name.
Unfortunately young right-back Davies could play no further part in the contest and is awaiting assessment of his knee to determine the seriousness of the injury.
Burton too only managed a further 25 minutes on the field before he succumbed to a knock from the same incident.
Former City goalkeeper Fraser Greenwood emerged as the hero of the opening 45 minutes, keeping David Heagney at bay with two good stops down to his left after seeing Burton glance a header centimetres wide of his right hand post.
And Glory were not without their own opportunities too, Harry O’Brien beating keeper Devon Spence to the ball but finding a Bayswater defender on hand to block his goal-bound strike.
Glory coach Scott Miller introduced Borbor Sambindi after the break and his speed down the left immediately troubled the Baysie rearguard, with O’Brien failing to capitalise from close range.
Against the run of play, the hosts took the lead in the 60th minute when Caceres pounced on a loose ball inside the box with Robertson unluckily in the way to divert the shot beyond the wrong-footed Greenwood.
But Glory were not behind for long when Knowles blasted past Spence after advancing forward from a clearance with Bayswater struggling to get back.
The winner came from Bayswater turning defence into attack at lightning speed in the 82nd minute.
O’Brien looked all set to side-foot a ball inside the area towards goal but a last ditch block saw the ball head in the opposite direction to Brian Farrell, who picked out a delightful cross-field defence splitting pass to Caceres.
He drew out the advancing Greenwood before clipping the ball beyond him and into the bottom far corner of the net to send the home fans into raptures.
It was tough on Glory coach Scott Miller and his young charges but he did not think luck had played its part.
“Football’s not unlucky,” he said. “They showed quality in front of goal and quality in defence and it was a fair result. Our boys were outstanding.”
Miller was disappointed with Burton-s tackle.
“It was a horrible tackle on Matty Davies and that’s our A-League player out of the game early on, so it left 17-18 year old kids to play against the best team in the State,” he said.
BAYSWATER CITY 2 (Caceras 60′ 82′)
PERTH GLORY 1 (Knowles 63′)
3pm, Saturday 17th May, 2014
Frank Drago Reserve
Referee: Michal JASINSKI
Crowd: 700 approx.
BAYSWATER CITY: 1. Devon SPENCE, 18. James ISAIA (5. Andy REALE 43′), 13. Trent KAY, 23. Chris SALDARIS, 20. Sam MITCHINSON, 6. Todd HOWARTH, 2. Declan HARGREAVES, 15. Brian FARRELL, 3. Adam BACHILLER (17. Sahr MUSA 78′), 321. David HEAGNEY, 12. Steve BURTON (11. Adrian CACERES 29′).
SUBSTITUTES NOT USED: 22. Joel DRISCOLL, 10. Damien CATALANO
YELLOW CARDS: Steve BURTON 5′, Todd HOWARTH 45+1′, Declan HARGREAVES 70′
PERTH GLORY: 1. Fraser GREENWOOD, 2. Matt DAVIES (15. Scott ROBERTSON 8′), 3. Anthony BADABUSHA, 4. Jack OLDHAM, 5. Hanafi GHAZALI, 6. Blamo QUA QUA, 16. Mo BEYAN (7. Bor Bor SAMBINDI), 8. Sean TROUP (17. Lawrence SHURUMA 59′), 9. Joe KNOWLES, 10. Harry O’BRIEN, 11. Slobodan VULIN.
SUBSTITUTES NOT USED: 18. Matt NTOUMONOPOULOS, 20. Ryan BARKER
YELLOW CARDS: Joe KNOWLES 48′, Sean TROUP 52′, Blamo QUA QUA 72′
