By JARROD POTTER
NPL VICTORIA 2 – ROUND 19
CONTRASTING feelings were left at the end of Dandenong Derby 2, as the visiting Dandenong City and hosting Dandenong Thunder remained deadlocked 1-1.
Both sides felt it was an opportunity squandered though – with errant shots and some questionable refereeing impacting both change-rooms after the 90-minute thriller at George Andrews Reserve.
Getting bang for its buck early, Thunder opened the accounts with an extraordinary passage. Daniel Bennett (21’) kicked one of the goals of the year as his shot from far out on left side rocketed past City keeper Damir Salcin to the right as a virtually untouchable bullet.
Salcin wouldn’t let any of the Thunder’s attacking efforts through his net again for the night as City clamped down.
Dandenong Thunder unleashed 16-year-old striker Godwill Benjamin for his first start and the young speedster impressed.
Benjamin terrorised the City defence over the left, as he almost found the match-winner on a few occasions late in the second half.
But the game ebbed through the middle phases as neither side cashed in on big opportunities.
While the game was hard-and-fast through the centre – as Thunder’s Brendan Elmazovski and Kristian Sarkies vied with City’s Keegan Ziada and Gonzalo Freddi among others – the true action was in the match-ups at either end.
City skipper John Carroll and Halil Gur had the superhuman task of taking on Thunder striker Brandon Barnes, while Thunder’s evergreen Simon Colosimo and Faisal Sakhizada went to former team mate Amir Osmancevic.
Neither Barnes nor Osmancevic would feature on the scoresheet at the end of the day, but not for a lack of trying, to highlight the gutsy efforts of both defences.
Barnes had the better opportunities, especially late in the clash, as he struck the crossbar and fed a constant stream of chips and crosses into the box for Benjamin and the like.
It would take a City spot kick from Dario Matkovic to turn the tables – as his curling, looping ball to the back of the box wasn’t cleared properly, allowing for a scrambled goal-line goal in the 76th.
It left the ledger even with 15 minutes left and Thunder surged to try and regain ascendency.
Barnes and Benjamin went on the warpath to make their shots, with Salcin and Carroll in particular holding on despite the volume of Thunder volleys.
A contentious non-call on Benjamin getting held in the box let City off the hook to set up one last attempt of their own – with Freddi getting on the end of a slick pass from Ross Frame but missing in the clinch moment.
In the end neither side could break the shackles once again, leaving Dandenong Thunder to retain the Jim Memeti Cup in one of the best matches in the Dandenong area history.
“It’s a very basic equation – I think the game should’ve been won by us,” Thunder coach Huss Skenderovic said. “We created enough chances … if you don’t take them you don’t win the game.
“We executed our game plan well and it should’ve been a very convincing win in the end by my standards and analysis on the game.”
Osmancevic received no love in his return to George Andrews Reserve – jeered and booed for most of the night – and pleasingly for Skenderovic, the former Thunder striker wasn’t able to impact the game.
“It’s one of those cases where he was under pressure and didn’t deal with the pressure very well cause he was isolated and didn’t step up,” Skenderovic said. “He got substituted and you heard the reaction from everyone, players alike.
“It’s a good feeling to think that he didn’t score against this team that supported him and gave him that first opportunity and then he ran like an individual away from his playing group.”
For City, it was a game of chances as well as a red-hot shot at knocking over the ladder leader came and went, leaving the third placed side to settle for a point.
“I actually thought for probably the first 70 minutes of the game that we played the better football,” City coach Aaron Healey said. “Went behind to a goal that was a classy goal, a world-class goal, but I still thought in the first half … we were well in this game.
“In the second half we started again and for first probably 20 minutes … we really put the pressure on them and scored a goal.
“The 10 minutes after the goal it started to get a little bit interesting and in the last 10 minutes they came at us and threw the kitchen sink at us and were fortunate enough … to get the point.”
Third ranked Dandenong City hosts Goulburn Valley Suns while ladder leaders Dandenong Thunder is off to Murray United.
Springvale White Eagles lost 1-2 to Brunswick City and will face Kingston City at home on Saturday.
