La Fiamma slip to 10th after tight loss to Perth Royals at home

Ugle Fabrications La Fiamma fell to another loss at home as Perth Royals completed a league double with a 2-1 win against the Reds on Saturday night

The Reds were boosted by the return of captain Lachlan Gray who was playing his first game since round six in May and did start the brighter of the two teams.

Kumbirai Dzoma’s pace was troubling the Royals’ defence on the wing as the Reds often looked to feed balls over the top for him to run on to.

While it didn’t result in any clear shots on goal it did prevent the Royals from playing a high line and allowed the Reds to look more settled on defence.

But then against the run of play, David Condori was beaten in a one-on-one allowing Royals’ Luke Mckeown to go through on goal and beat Jack Pirone low on his right.

The Reds were no forced to attack as the Royals were happy to slow down the game into half-time wasting plenty of time in injury stoppages.

Atallah Aman produced the Reds’ first shot in anger with a speculative effort and was not far away as it curled away to the right.

Perth almost doubled their lead but Tom Mitic cleared from the line before he forced the first save from the Royals goalie after some nice build-up play on the right wing.

George Hinds should of scored just before half-time for the Royals with a header on open goal but somehow found the crossbar to leave the Reds trailing 1-0 at the break.

In the second half, Mitic did pull on back for the Reds for his third goal of the season but the Royals scored again through Michael Privett and held on for a 2-1 win.

The Reds now sit 10th but are six points clear of the drop while the Reserves were outmatched in a 5-2 drubbing and also sit in tenth spot.