The Megapowers exploded, there was late, late drama and a small, but noticeable, a gap is beginning in the race for the finals’ spots. Needless to say, it was a big, big round 12 in NPL Victoria.
The combatants having streaked to the top of the table in the season’s opening months, the past weekend was highlighted by titanic clashes between Melbourne Knights and Bentleigh Greens on Friday night and Avondale against South Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.
Bragging rights were certainly up for grabs in the two fixtures, as was a potentially important psychological win ahead of expected meetings in September’s finals series.
Knights trip to Bentleigh on bore all the hallmarks of a barnburner entering the contest.
Coming off an OG Melbourne Derby win over South Melbourne, the Knights were undefeated in five games and fourth on the NPL Victoria table, while the Greens were also undefeated in five - with four wins - and fifth on the ladder.
Nobody, though, told the Greens that things were supposed to be close.
The ball falling perfectly for him, Mitch Hore opened the scoring for Bentleigh with a sweetly struck long-range effort that veritably flew into the bottom corner of the net in the 14th minute, before Jake Webster met an inswinging corner with a well-directed header to make it two in the 38th.
Netting a fourth goal in five games, Pierce Waring made it a triumvirate of first-half goals for coach Nick Tolios’ side when he latched onto a long ball over the top on the left flank, produced a shifty move to lose his marker as he cut inside and then fired an effort beyond Tom Manos in the 45th minute.
Gian Albano dragged one back for the Knights when he capped off a fast break by depositing a left-footed effort around onrushing Greens’ keeper Javi Lopez in the 62nd, but Bentleigh restored their three-goal buffer ten minutes later when Damian Iaconis lofted a shot (giving him the benefit of the doubt that he meant it) from the corner of the penalty area and over the head of Manos.
Latching onto a ball from Iaconis with three minutes of regulation time remaining, Hore then bookended his side’s dominant display with his second goal of the contest.
Having now taken 15 points from their past five games, the win by the Greens served to move them from fifth into the second position on the table behind only Avondale FC, retained their place at the summit of the Victorian top-flight by recording a 2-0 win over South Melbourne at the Regio Calabria club on Saturday afternoon.
Seeking to bounce back from defeat at the hands of Knights the previous week, Hellas almost recorded a perfect start to the contest when winger Gerrie Sylaidos found Marcus Schroen inside their foes six-yard-box but the latter’s shot was sent straight at Avengers keeper Rory Brian.
Six minutes later South thought they had a penalty when Matthew Reid and Schroen clashed on the edge of the host’s penalty area, only for the referee to decree that the Avondale defender had reached the ball first.
There was no such luck for Ben Djiba up the other end, however, with the South defender adjudged to have unfairly brought down Stefan Zinni by referee Paschalis Natis in the 56th minute of the contest - giving away a penalty that was promptly converted by Stefan Valentini.
South eventually got a spot-kick of their own in the 62nd minute when Henry Hore received a healthy shove in the back as a ball was whipped in, only for Brian to produce one of the saves of the season to deny Sylaidos’ resulting effort.
Four minutes later the hosts capitalized on the missed opportunity and put the game to bed: Yusuf Ahmed following up a Valentini shot that had rebounded off the frame of the goal and back into play with a header that made it 2-0.
Thus, for the second straight week, results elsewhere meant that Heidelberg United had a chance to leapfrog their bitter rivals South on the table only to again miss their chance - this time after falling 1-0 to Hume City.
After testing the gloves of Alexander keeper Christopher Theodoridis in just the eighth minute of the contest, Hume’s Josh Bingham found the net for the game’s lone goal in the 37th minute when he turned defender Mallan Roberts as the two assembled beneath a long Michael Weier goal kick, advanced in on goal and scored his eighth goal of the season.
Sean Ellis whipped a wicked left-footed effort beyond the far post in the 50th minute and Luka Ninkovic put another effort wide seconds later as the visitors pushed for an equaliser, with the latter then having a header clatter off the post and out of bounds in the 58th minute.
Ninkovic must have felt like he couldn’t buy a goal on the evening; denied yet again in the 81st minute after he had a shot cleared off the line from Umut Bozdugan.
Coach Nick Hegerty’s side may have been experiencing an up and down season in 2021 - especially compared to their barnstorming start to the 2020 campaign before its cancellation - but ABD Stadium is proving to be a veritable fortress. The side remains undefeated in six games at the venue so far, with their last five fixtures all producing wins.
Heidelberg now finds themselves just a point ahead of Oakleigh Cannons on the table, who secured a relatively straightforward 3-0 win against St Albans Saints on Sunday afternoon.
Sprung into space in the penalty area by Wade Dekker, Matt Thurtell opened the scoring for coach Chris Taylor’s side in the 20th minute of the contest when he laced an effort across the face of Hayden Browne’s goal and inside the far post.
It took a while, but the Cannons then made it 2-0 in the 83rd minute when Joe Guest played a pass into the path of an advancing Joe Knowles on the edge of Dinamo’s penalty area and the latter’s resulting shot sailed past Browne and into the back of the net.
Substitute Ryan Paczkowski then sealed the result when he netted his first goal of the season by turning in a relatively simple cutback from Christopher Lucas in the 90th.
Winners of two of their last five, the Cannons leapfrogged Melbourne Knights into fifth in the wake of their triumph; the boys from Jack Edwards Reserve now just a point behind South and Heidelberg on the table.
A clear gap beginning to emerge between the top six and the rest of the league, Port Melbourne Sharks did what they could to ensure that they at least remained in sight of the playoff places after recording a 2-0 win over Green Gully at JL Murphy Reserve on Friday night.
A hospital backpass from Jackson Courtney-Perkins picked out by Alex Salmon gave Gully a golden opportunity to steal the lead in the 27th minute, only for the Englishman to be driven sufficiently wide by keeper Andrew Withers to allow for a comfortable save on the resulting shot.
Courtney-Perkins, though, made amends just two minutes later when he broke through the visitor’s defensive lines and fired past Jerrad Tyson to make it 1-0.
Both sides poking and prodding as they searched for the all-important next goal, it was Sharks debutant Lathan Dunn that eventually produced the breakthrough when he collected the ball on the edge of Gully’s penalty area, ducked one way and then the other to open up a yard of space and rifled a shot home.
Now undefeated in their last three games, the win moves coach Adam Piddick’s Sharks’ unit above Gully and into eighth place on the table.
At the other end of the table, Dandenong City finally recorded their first win of the 2021 campaign; heading to Gardiners Creek Reserve and downing Eastern Lions 1-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Both sides produced a series of strong chances early on in the contest, with Jasmin Keranovic’s strong save to deny the Lions’ Ziggy Razuki in the 15th minute amongst the pick of the opening highlights.
However, it was coach Saša Ogeneovski’s that ended up breaking the deadlock in the 41st when Nicholas Dib scooted in a long-range free-kick that worked its way through an assembled pack of players, bounced just in front of the Lions’ keeper Anirudh Kappiyoor and nestled in the back of the net.
Keranovic did well to deny mid-season Lion addition Charlie Fry’s attempt at an equalizing header in the 66th minute, before Martin Palinic’s overlapping run and shot in the 75th minute was saved by Kappiyoor to keep the deficit to one.
Hajduk, nonetheless, had done enough to secure themselves the win; moving off the bottom of the NPL Victoria table with the three points and now finding themselves just two points back of a position outside the relegation zone.
Their local rivals the Thunder were also successful in their round 12 game - their 3-1 win over Altona ensuring that the Magic now remain the only side in the Victorian top-flight without a win in 2021.
However, the Thunder were put behind the eight-ball early on in the contest when defender Keagan Sheridan received a straight red card in just the third minute of the contest for a nasty looking sliding challenge on Jonas Markovski.
But they promptly shook off their one-man disadvantage to take the lead in the 16th frame when a Hamish Watson free-kick was saved by Stefan King, only for Liron Azizi to follow up and fire home the rebound.
Despite their best efforts, neither side was able to find the back of the net throughout the remaining minutes of regular time but, knowing that Dandy City’s win over the Lions would consign them to the bottom of the table if they didn’t find an equaliser, the Magic continued to push hard into injury time.
And they were rewarded in the 91st minute when Troy Ruthven let loose with a long-range thunderbolt that buried itself in the bottom corner of the net.
But somehow, the ten-man Thunder was able to rally and retake the lead a minute later when Nahuel Bonada dragged a loose ball back to the top of the Magic’s six-yard box and Ali Sulemani pounced to bundle it over the goal line.
The Thunder breaking quickly in transition as their foes threw numbers forward, Sulemani then sealed the win in the 95th minute when he broke in on goal and slid an effort past Stefan King to make it 3-1.
