Teece nearly provided the second goal two minutes later as he hooked a cross over his shoulder and Alex Morgan nodded over unmarked from six yards. Kieran Colwell's cross was headed over by Daniel McKenzie before Jackson Morgan missed narrowly with an outside of the boot strike from 25 yards. Perth were having their best spell of the game as Joel Driscoll made two brilliant saves from Tom Southgate and Paul Zimarino's free-kick, but he was helpless a minute before half-time as the Azzurri levelled. Yagoub Mustafa powered his way down the right and his cross inadvertently deflected off Jordan Brown and beyond his goalkeeper into the net. In the second half Mustafa was denied by Driscoll before Ryan Montgomery was called into action when he reacted well to palm Teece's flick-on over the bar.

In-form Cockburn came into Saturday's game having won three of their past four games and they scored two quickfire goals to continue their fine run and finish in third place before the split. Sebastian Da Silva was bundled over in the penalty area by Blake Adams on 15 minutes and up stepped Lazzaro to score his fifth goal in five games from the spot. Da Silva has impressed at U18 and U20 level for Cockburn in the past two seasons scoring 13 goals in each campaign, and the youngster tapped home Riley Woodcock's cross three minutes later to score his second in as many games since making his senior debut last week.

Sorrento took their place in the top six as they earned a 1-1 draw on the road at Perth SC. The Gulls needed a draw to join Floreat, Gwelup, Cockburn, ECU and Armadale in the next phase and they got off a flying start at Dorrien Gardens. The visitors took the lead after eight minutes when Ollie Annis floated in a free-kick and Golden Boot leader Cameron Teece arrived late at the back post to score his 12th of the season.

ECU controlled most of the opening period but survived a late scare when Johnny Perkins flew off his line from a free-kick, Adam Zimarino's shot was blocked, and Calum O'Connell was unable to hook home. But normal service resumed for the home side after the restart and Hodgson doubled ECU's lead on 53 minutes when he ghosted into the six-yard box unmarked to head in Andy Higgins' corner. Hodgson then completed his brace when Bayley Brown-Montgomery pulled back from the bye-line and the English striker was on hand to pick out the corner from 12 yards. Ben Hinshelwood nearly added a fourth when his shot was blocked by Stephenson at the end, but it mattered little as ECU extended their unbeaten run to five while Balcatta are winless in seven.

That left one place to be filled. Inglewood United’s race was run as they trailed 2-0 against Perth Glory before eventually losing 2-1. Which meant sixth spot was between Armadale and Bayswater. Armadale, who began the day in sixth, were doing themselves no favours at Cockburn. John O’Reilly’s team fell two goals behind after only 18 minutes and that was how it ended. So Bayswater had to beat Floreat by three goals or more to edge out Armadale on goal difference, and they gave it a real crack. Daryl Nicol got the ball rolling on eight minutes when he side-footed in Luke Salmon’s daisy-cutter free-kick.