NEW BALANCE NPLWA – MENS – WEEK ONE REVIEW
Dianella White Eagles first game back in the NPL since 1998 has seen them come away from the RedStar Arena with a 1-1 draw against Perth RedStar in Saturday’s New Balance NPLWA – Men’s opening round. “Have to be happy going away to RedStar and getting a point although we can’t help feeling some disappointment in not getting all three points after domination majority of the second half,” Eagles keeper Joel Driscoll said. “A good start to the season and we now look forward to going to Knights away next week.” The hosts were ahead on 14 minutes, Riley Warland’s corner was flicked on by Luke Bodner, and the unmarked Gordon Smith at the back post made no mistake.
But the Eagles hit back and levelled ten minutes later, Daniel Zivkovic pouncing on a loose pass, his first shot was well saved by Liam Reedy, but the striker made no mistake from the rebound. “Not the result we were looking for but credit to Dianella, we knew they’d come out the traps fast with it being their first game in NPL for a while,” RedStar striker Gordon Smith explained. “Disappointing to switch off to allow them back into the game after taking the lead, but overall, a draw was a fair result. We’ll dust ourselves down and train hard this week in preparation for another big home game against Kingsway.”
> Western Knights have started the season with a bang, after a 4-1 win against Armadale at Alfred Skeet Reserve. Comments. The visitors made a perfect start, and they were ahead on eight minutes, with Jack Sprigg turning home a corner. But Armadale were level six minutes later, great work down the left by Abraham Mathet saw him get to the byline and cross to the back post and Leigh Griffiths was hand to head home his first goal for the club.
It was a perfect response from the hosts, but it was as good as it got for John Baird’s side, with the Knights regaining the lead ten minutes before the break. Substitute Justin Tang had only been on the pitch a few minutes, before he curled home from the edge of the box. Adam Kostrencic’s side went on with it after the break, adding a third on 67 minutes, Sprigg crossing to Aaron Pike, who made no mistake. They wrapped up the points ten minutes from time, Konstantinos Sparta’s shot was parried by Dave Keenan, and Kristian Santich turned home the rebound.
In the final game, Sorrento and Perth Glory have played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at Percy Doyle Reserve. “A solid performance from the group giving our circumstances of only 11 players available,” new Sorrento coach Andrea Oliveira explained. “Our structure was good, we limited Glory’s chances, and we were able to create a number of opportunities of our own. The players showed good intensity and commitment.” In his first NPL game in charge of the Gulls, Oliveria saw his side open the scoring five minutes before the break. Dean Cummings’ free kick was headed home by Connor Simpson. But Glory fought back and found the equaliser on 67 minutes, an attempted clearance from Sorrento keeper Ben Ratjczak was charged down by half time substitute Santiago Flores, and the ball rolled into an empty net.
“It was a poor performance from us, we could not find any consistency in our play from start to finish,” Glory coach Joe Heath said. “Sorrento went 1 0 up and then made it very difficult by dropping into a low block, which we found difficult to break down. We cannot turn up to games and wait 45 minutes to start playing. I was disappointed with our performance as a collective and felt it was two points dropped already for us, but credit to Sorrento they worked hard and dug in for the point and probably deserved more.”
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