La Fiamma off to red-hot start in men’s Perth Amateur League with gritty three-goal win over Perth Saints

Ugle Fabrication La Fiamma has opened its State Amateur League season on a strong note, picking up a gritty 4-1 win over Perth Saints in their first road trip of the season. Despite not being at full strength and down one player for the second half, the Reds made a strong early impression, with several classy passages of play and neat finishes in front of goal. Reflecting on the match, coach Mark Gray said while it was a great win, there was still plenty of work to be done. “We struggled in the first 15 to 20 minutes just to get some cohesion within the team,” he said. “They look like a team that have played together for a little while, whereas we look like a team that had just been put together at the last minute. “However, we were able to counter attack some some of the during that game, and that’s where we got two goals from during the match.” The former Kalamunda City state league midfielder Simuteya Sikazwe wasted no time settling into his new side, slotting two first-half goals past the Saints keeper to get on the board early on club debut. While the contest was hot through the middle, the Flames continued to wrangle control on their terms until a wayward shot from Saints made it past keeper Braiden Page late in the first half, going 2-1 . With about a minute remaining in the first half, new signing and left winger Roy Kimutai was shown a red card, putting an early end to his day and reducing La Fiamma to 10 players in the second half. After half-time, Gray made the decision to sub on Jackson Burns who fought hard for La Fiamma who hunted for more goals, which eventuated as Burns capitalised on a goalkeeper error to bring the score to 3-1. “He’s a young guy, very fit, very fast, very attacking player,” Gray said. “He was able to apply pressure quite readily in that second half to just take a bit of pressure off our defenders. “We just sat back and allowed that team to make mistakes, and then once they’d made those mistakes, we put the counter attack back on. “Jackson scoring that goal early on in the second half to make it 3-1, I think put the nail in the coffin for Saints.” Carrying on his form which won him the 2025 Sciuto medal, Kumbi Dzoma, nailed one last goal seeing his side to a comfortable 4-1 victory at Tompkin Park. The reserves side also came away with a 4-1 win — the first win under new coach Adam Westbrook, with a hat-trick from Bradley Davis guiding them to victory against Perth Saints. The fourth goal came way of Michael Southwell, who scored his long overdue first goal for La Fiamma, also at Tompkin Park. La Fiamma returns home this weekend to play Kalamunda City, who lost its round one bout against Chipolopolo. Kick off commences at 6pm on Saturday, April 18 at Salvatore Sciuto Stadium.