Balga SC suffered a second round defeat at the hands of Joondalup City in the Football West Night Series on Saturday night. Joondalup pounced on a defensive lapse to score their first with 20 minutes gone. Balga squared the match in the 80th minute through Hubert Hakizimana. Just when it looked like the points may be shared, Joondalup clinched the winner with seconds to spare.
Bobby Taneski was disappointed with the result on the night but is optimistic that the team is on the right track. “It is a poor result for us which puts us in a must win game against Ashfield on Sunday. We played poorly for 70 minutes of the game and struggled to break Joondalup down. Movement off the ball was at times non-existent and worrying as we could not adapt to moving the ball quickly as we have seen in our previous friendlies against much better opposition. Credit to Joondalup as they played well and will be a Division 2 force this season.”
Attention now turns to the final round of the group stage and the must win match against the group toppers and hosts Ashfield on Sunday night.”Ashfield are by far the strongest side in our group and it will be a struggle to obtain the much needed 3 points to from them” said Taneski.
Ashfield continued their winning run with a 2:1 defeat of Kingsway Olympic. It was all square on half time but Ashfield wrapped up all 3 points on the hour mark to leave Kingsway winless. “Ashfield deserve a lot of credit as they are a force every season in Division 1. Our focus is to produce a much better style of play this week, more fluidity and a better conversion rate to chances created. We must remember that we have played with a reshuffled defensive lineup for the past 4 weeks due to injuries. We’re confident that we will be a much stronger defensive unit once those players return.” said Taneski.
Balga SC kick off against Ashfield SC at 5pm on Sunday, 21 FEB 2016.