Armadale 0 Vs. 0 Wanneroo City

Wanneroo City returned from Alfred Skeet Oval with their first point of the campaign after holding Armadale to a tense 0-0 draw. Young guns Marlon Ramirez and Ryan Pearson made their presence felt early for the home team who dominated the opening exchanges but carved out very few chances on goal courtesy of some resolute defending. Their best opening came the way of Pearson whose was played through by Steve Skalandis only for Luke Croxall to block the shot. It took until midway through the half for Wanneroo to spark into life with Craig Cheesman and Gary Andrews directing traffic as they went forward. The pace of Derek Cooke and Ahmed Hafez was causing Armadale some real problems at the back and both players had shots cleared of the line, while a goalmouth scramble saw the ball’s passage to goal blocked on three occasions before eventually going out for a corner. Wanneroo took control after the break but it clearly wasn’t going to be their day as shots by Cooke and Cheeseman were kept out. Going the other way, Kevin Miller was called upon to turn Jason Goodwin’s snap shot from 14-metres around the post. The home team were reduced to ten men when Darren Kingston was issued his marching orders by Angelo Nardi following a dangerous challenge on Mark Donnelly in the 55 minute. Sensing the points were theirs for the taking, Wanneroo upped the tempo but could find few holes in a stubborn backline that featured Dusan Macura and Matthew Bennion. With just minutes left on the clock the visitors found a way through but Gary Andrews’ close-range header was brilliantly saved by Cyril Sharrock.