NPL: Armadale goes down 2-0 in scrappy encounter with Floreat Athena

Christopher Saldaris opened the scoring on the brink of half time before Nathan Scully put the game to bed on 71 minutes.

Armadale finished with 10 men after Raveshlan Kuppusamy was forced off with an injury.

Armadale coach Paul Price thought his side were unfortunate not to have gotten more out of the game.

“I thought overall we were the better side but there’s no point in being the better side if you don’t score goals,” he said.

“We had three ongoing injuries throughout the match where we had players receiving treatment on the sideline.

“And we actually finished the game with 10 men, and even with 10 men I still thought that we were creating some good chances but we didn’t put any of them in the back of the net.”

Floreat coach Glen Grostate thought his team was exceptional in what he deemed to be a scrappy game.

“Armadale are a hard team to play,” he said. “You have to battle and you have to fight for the points and that’s what we did today.

“I thought the defensive line was unbelievable today. The only way I thought we were going to concede was if we made a mistake.

“And we didn’t make many mistakes but instead we worked hard and scored goals.”

Armadale began the game positively when Papa Kpatar delivered a cross to Ellis Healing whose volley went over the bar.

Healing was the architect in the 43rd minute when he chested a cross down to Anthony Skorich whose shot was just wide of the goal.

Floreat scored just before the break partly thanks to a thunderous volley from Phil Arnold.

Arnold’s volley from outside of the box deflected off the underside of the cross-bar and fell conveniently to Christopher Saldaris who made no mistake.

Floreat doubled their lead in the 71st minute when Nathan Scully tucked it into the bottom corner.

The away side had a chance to pull one back just five minutes later, but Danny Hodgsonfailed to score.

It only got worse for Armadale as their final substitute Kuppusamy came off with an injury.