By JARROD POTTER
NPL VICTORIA 2 EAST – ROUND 6
DANDENONG City broke open its clash against Ballarat Red Devils after persistent pressure started to pay off in the second half.
It was level pegging entering the final half-hour as Dandenong City and Ballarat shared the early goals through Chris Antoniadis (39’, 91’) and Nelson Salvatore (60’).
But Shaun Filopovic opened the game up in the 69th minute, taking on the defence and forcing a last-ditch attempt on the City midfielder from Ballarat Red Devils keeper Aaron Romein.
The error sent Romein from the field with a red card and left Dario Matkovic (69’) to comfortably slot the penalty past junior keeper Ryan Schorback.
City peppered the goals throughout the last 25 minutes against 10 men as Antoniadis added a second to his account after a couple of near misses while Ash Cattermole (78’) savoured a slice of the scoring as well to finish the rout 4-1.
Against 10 and a young keeper the margin should’ve been more though; the skipper John Carroll had a header cleared off the line and Anthony Cassar’s simple shot at the far post dribbled out of bounds among a few other attempts that could have seen the margin skyrocket.
With head coach Aaron Healey on holiday, stand-in coach Gerry McDonagh was pleased to see his charges take on the best that Ballarat could muster.
“We knew Ballarat would come at us, and potentially cause some problems with the pace they had out wide and the pace they had throughout the midfield,” McDonagh said. “The drive by Shaun to get forward and recognise that ball was getting back to the keeper and actually get a touch to it and force the keeper into making an error.
“We were able to play against 10 men – which is always nice when you’re ahead as it gives you an opportunity to knock the ball around in play and open them up.”
McDonagh believed the earlier misses, when it was 11-on-11, coudl have been costly as City failed to push ahead despite a lot of chances.
“We probably kept ourselves under pressure a little bit – especially at the start of the second half – we missed some opportunities,” McDonagh said. “Ashley’s header at the back post, Gonzalo (Freddi) gets one cleared off the line so we could’ve been two or three up but once again were still one each.
“It was good to see that in the second part – when we played against 10 men – when those opportunities arose we were able to finish off and come away with a strong result and a strong 15-20 minutes to finish the game.”
McDonagh thought Luke Burgess was strong at the back while Gonzalo Freddi’s up-front work rate was phenomenal alongside Filopovic and Antoniadis in the best afield.
Things will only get better for City from here as it should see the return of striker Keegan Ziada for the upcoming clash against Kingston City next Monday.
Springvale White Eagles split the points with Sunshine George Cross after Jack Louziotis (90+1’) levelled the scores in the dying seconds.
On Sunday afternoon, after the Journal went to print, Dandenong Thunder faced St Albans Saints away and in WNPL Southern United played Alamein SC.
In the state leagues, South Springvale was rolled 0-2 by Malvern City while Noble Park United was outclassed by Doveton SC 1-3 as Stephen Begue (55’, 60’) and substitute Simba Saidi (70’) cleaned up.
Dandenong South and Noble Park SC split the points 3-3 – with a Malik Sulemani hat-trick for Souths – as did Hampton Park United Sparrows and Keysborough in a 1-1 draw. In the all Endeavour Hills start to the season, Endeavour Hills Fire carried on its strong FFA Cup qualifying rounds form to see off Endeavour United 3-2. David Schulberg cashed in twice for the Fire while Mathew Durand nailed the match-winner off the bench.
Dandenong Warriors took to its State League 5 South debut with gusto against White Star Dandenong, making its entrance well known with a 6-4 goal-spree.
