The round up of all of the action from the opening weekend of the WA NPL.
Former Perth Glory defender Jamie Harnwell has tipped big things from new Sorrento signing Sean Canham, who scored twice on his National Premier Leagues WA debut at Percy Doyle Reserve on Saturday.
Harnwell, who is co-coach of Sorrento, was delighted with the former English Football League-s impact in the 2-1 win over Balcatta.
“He-s a danger in the box,” Harnwell said of the former Exeter City and Notts Country front man. “We-ve just got to make sure he gets good service and he did a couple of times today. I think there-s more to come from him and I-m looking forward to him having a good season.”
Canham gave the home side the lead on 25 minutes, heading home Daryl Platten-s cross, before Balcatta skipper Adam Tong levelled on the stroke of half-time with a thumping strike.
The game took a twist on 67 minutes when Balcatta midfielder Kris Gate was sent off and Sorrento made their advantage count eight minutes later.
Again it was Canham on target, the English striker heading home former Glory midfielder Scott Bulloch-s deep cross.
Cockburn City midfielder David Araya had the honour of scoring the first ever goal in the NPL WA in his side-s 3-3 draw against ECU Joondalup.
Cockburn midfielder Conor Kavanagh-s own goal put Joondalup level before Devon Gibson regained the lead for the visitors. A brace either side of half time from another former Glory player, Tommy Amphlett, put Joondalup in control but a late striker from Kavanagh gave Cockburn a share of the spoils.
Amphlett rued missed opportunities.
“We had a number of chances we wasted today - I missed a few - but its early days in the season and I thought we played well in the second half,” Amphlett said.
“I thought on the whole we deserved the three points, but we can take a lot of positives from the game and move forward to next week-s game against Perth Glory.”
Glory-s NPL side opened their campaign with a hard fought 1-1 draw against Perth SC at Intiga Stadium.
Lawrence Shuruma gave Glory the lead but Friday Zico levelled on the stroke of half time.
Glory coach Scott Miller said: “The boys really stepped up in their first game against the big boys today and we were rapt with the way we knocked the ball around.
“Today we had enough possession to create more goal chances, but they are new boys getting used to each other so we-ll work on that.”
Elsewhere in round one, Danny Dixon was on target as Bayswater City edged out Armadale 1-0 at Frank Drago Reserve, while Subiaco began life in the top flight with a confidence-boosting 0-0 draw against Stirling Lions at the WA Athletics Stadium.
Floreat Athena showed their class in beating Inglewood United 3-0 at the E&D Litis Stadium. English striker Jamie Eames opened the scoring and Mark Walsh made it 2-0 before the break, with Ludovic Boi adding a third in the second half.
Image courtesy of Richard Kreider.