Soccer: Kingsley claims 2-1 win over Wembley Downs

KINGSLEY defeated Wembley Downs SC 2-1 in the Amateur Premier Division on Sunday afternoon at Chichester Park.

Mark King opened the scoring for Kingsley in the ninth minute before Blaine Slater equalised for the visitors on the hour mark.

But it was Kingsley who had the final response as Jesse Higgins struck the winner.

Kingsley coach Steve Dimitriovch was thrilled his side got the three points but recognised the game was in the melting pot for large parts.

“I’m very happy; we worked on quite a few things during the week,” he said.

“I thought the first half was very pleasing. Second half, first 20-25 minutes Wembley were probably on top of us and we just struggled to get back into the game. But making the changes we did when we did I think helped us and got us a bit of balance back and got us the win in the end.”

Kingsley took the lead early thanks to King, when he was found unmarked inside the box and headed past Wembley goalkeeper Nial McCarthy.

They had another chance 10 minutes later when Jayden Drummond put in a great ball across the face of the Wembley goal only for it to be cleared before it could be tapped home.

The dominance from the home side continued and minutes later they saw two shots from Oliver Valentine and Drummond come back of the woodwork.

Kingsley keeper Paul Rainford was finally forced to make a double save as he palmed away a Wembley freekick before saving the follow up header.

Wembley threatened again before half time but Ryan Morris was unable to finish Mat Deveraux’s squared ball.

Wembley dominated the start of the second half and was rewarded on the hour mark when Slater found space on the edge of the box and placed his shot perfectly past Rainford to level the scores.

Kingsley responded by making three substitutions, which appeared to hep it back into the game.

Substitute Sean Johnson beat the offside trap only to shoot wide and King hit the post when he looked set to score.

The winner came eight minutes from time as Higgins blasted in a rebound after the ball was headed on to the post following a corner.

Wembley Downs coach Martin Sullivan couldn’t hide his disappointment as his side failed to get something out of the game but conceded that his team failed to show up in the first half and didn’t see out the game like their opponents.

“We were unlucky I think at the end, conceding from another set-piece after getting back into the game. But with 10-15 minutes to go we were just dead on our feet and all credit to Kingsley because they fought and fought until the end,” Sullivan said.

“We’ve obviously gone a goal down and then to get back into the game, I thought we were the better side in the second half. But we didn’t show up in the first half and in the end we tried our best but it wasn’t good enough on the day.”

Kingsley travel away to Kelly Park to take on Kwinana United this weekend while Wembley host Jaguar at home.

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