Thunder storms to win

By Stuart Teather
DANDENONG made it two from two on Friday night with a 1-0 win over Oakleigh at Jack Edwards Reserve.
The newly promoted Thunder has made the best possible start to its Victorian Premier League campaign and was again on song in its round-two clash.
Dandenong coach Stuart Munro said the side was helped along by a massive crowd – particularly for an away match – that provided good support all night for his team.
“There was a huge travelling support from Dandenong and it created a very good atmosphere,” he said.
Both teams struggled during the match to convert opportunities in front of goal, but Munro said the game’s speed led to errors.
Munro described the game as fairly entertaining and fairly open.
“There was a lot of pace and quite a lot of mistakes as well, but that was because of the speed,” he said
The two teams went into the break locked at 0-0, but both had their chances and the second half proved no different.
Again Dandenong had plenty of chances up forward, but couldn’t find the net and the scores remained locked as injury time approached at the end of the game.
But the side kept pushing and in the 92nd minute the breakthrough came.
A deep Marcus Stergiopoulos cross from a free kick had Oakleigh’s keeper caught out of position and a deft header from Joe Di Iorio flew in, handing Dandenong what appeared to be a last-gasp victory.
But another five nervous minutes of injury time passed before Munro and his charges could celebrate the win.
Reflecting on the victory, Munro said he was pleased his players stuck it out for the full 90 minutes.
“It was one of those games it looked like it was going to finish 0-0, but it could’ve gone either way,” he said.
“At the end of the game I felt like the players were still determined to try and get the winning goal and we achieved that.”
This Saturday Dandenong’s job does not get any easier, hitting the road for its third consecutive away game, this time against the undefeated Green Gully.
“As long as I’ve been in this league I’ve always rated Green Gully as the benchmark team,” Munro said.
“They’ve always been up there challenging and are probably one of the more professional outfits in the league.
“Again we’ll go in as the underdogs and we quite enjoy that tag so we’ll go there with the best intentions once again.”