Match Report By Jamie Graham

A 30 minute blitz in the first half was enough for the BankWest Perth Saints to get their first ever win at Sutherlands Park. Producing some of their best football, the Saints could have scored even more than the three goals they ended up with after 90 minutes.

With a strong breeze at their back, Sutherlands Park piled the pressure onto the Saints defence at the start of the first half. Sam Collins kept the scores level with a number of excellent saves, including a finger tip touch over the bar which seemed to spark the Saints into life.

A Collins goal kick was nodded on for Potter to stab a shot past the advancing keeper, only to see the ball bounce back into play off the square posts. The alert Troy Richards squared the rebound back to Dan Doody whose shot from 15 yards hit the post again; the ball eventually came back to Richards who blasted his shot over the bar from 8 yards.

The Saints finally got their reward in the 20th minute with a Richards long range shot swerving past the diving keeper to make it 0-1.

The Saints continued to knock the ball around the Sutherlands 18 yard box and doubled their lead seven minutes later. A great passing move saw the Saints string a series of touches together which split the Sutherlands defence leaving Dan Doody in space to smash homeTroy Richard’s cut back home from 15 yards.

After hitting the post and a couple of near misses, the Saints found themselves three goals up with a near identical move to the second goal leaving Dan Doody with space to score his second of the day.

Sutherlands piled on the pressure in the second half with Collins mopping up everything that came to him.

A few nervous moments in the last five minutes saw Sutherlands come close to equalising as the tired Saints gave away two quick goals in the 87th and 89th minutes. In the end it wasn’t enough for Sutherlands as the Saints hung on for their first win of season 2008.

April 22, 2008