Thunder praised for friendly fire

By Gavin Staindl
MELBOURNE Victory coach Ernie Merrick has praised the efforts of the Dandenong Thunder players after they were narrowly beaten in a friendly between the A-League and Premier League clubs at Olympic Park.
The Tuesday night friendly that followed the 2-0 win over Bentleigh on Friday night, was decided in the final minute after Victory came back from a 0-1 deficit to win 2-1 on the final whistle.
Merrick, who was rather perplexed at how his side managed to steal the win, spoke to Thunder coach Stuart Munro after the game and complimented him on his playing list and the possibility of star-striker Jamie Reed making a start with the A-League club.
“He said we have a number of players who look good and with Jamie Reed scoring again and Victory looking for a striker who knows what could happen there,” Munro said.
But Munro is not reading much into the game, preferring to turn his attention back to the State Premier League.
“It was good for a few boys to get 90 minutes in their legs and we got most of the squad involved … but it was just a friendly,” Munro said.
The match with Victory followed on from Friday night’s clash with Bentleigh that again featured Jamie Reed at his best.
Reed scored the only two goals of the match in the opening 20 minutes to put the game beyond reach of the home side.
Despite controlling most of the game, Bentleigh could not penetrate deep enough into the Thunder defence to fire off threatening chances.
On the other hand, Dandenong continue to use their counter-attack as the main means of scoring and on the weekend it worked again.
“We’ve been doing that for five weeks now. We are playing three up front but the two wide players and playing more defensive, which suits us because we have a lot of speed going forward.
“Our defence is rock-solid so it’s now turned into our game plan to score on the counter attack,” Munro said.