Rockingham triumph in derby thriller

Rockingham City Football Club edged out local rivals Mandurah City in a thriller at Lark Hill on Saturday, coming from behind twice to secure a 3-2 victory.

A big crowd was on hand for the derby, with the visitors opening the scoring before Rockingham’s Mitch Morrin levelled things up.

While Rockingham looked to get the ball down and play, Mandurah adopted a more direct approach and it looked to have paid off as they found themselves 2-1 up.

However, Rockingham showed they were made of stern stuff when Koty Millard equalised to make it 2-2 before Josh Mackinder sent the crowd and his coach into raptures with a 90th-minute winner to take the points.

Rockingham coach Cameron Lord praised his entire team for the spirited performance which saw them secure their third win of the season. “What was most pleasing was they we kept on trying to play, despite what they were trying to do,” Lord said.

“They were very direct in going long all the time — we just kept on trying to play football and we got rewarded in the end, which was really nice for us.”

Rockingham will not return to the field until May 26 when they face Ashfield.

Despite the break, Lord said the team would be put through their paces at training with a number of players returning from injury.

“We’ve got so many people coming back from injury now so it’s obviously really important to try and get people back up to speed so that when we do play Ashfield in three weeks we’ve got everyone fit and everyone available,” he said.

Saturday’s game against Mandurah also saw Rockingham celebrate 10 years since moving from Dowling Street to Lark Hill, with club president Brian Kennedy hailing the occasion as a memorable day for the club.

“It was a great day at the office for Rockingham City with all three State teams winning,” Kennedy said. “(The) 18s won 4-0, reserves won 5-2 and the first team won 3-2.

“Thanks to all RCFC volunteers behind the scenes in making it a memorable day.