By Nick Creely
It sure was a cracking, fiery start to the NPL Victoria season, with Dandenong Thunder taking it right up to reigning champions Bentleigh Greens on Thursday night.
While the Thunder went down 3-1 at Kingston Heath, spirit was at the forefront after some controversial decisions early in the match forced them to play with one player down for almost 80 minutes.
After a quiet start to the game with both sides putting their feelers out, the underdog Thunder unit rocketed the first ball to the back of the net in the 13th minute, with a stellar through ball from Brandon Barnes gifting Zois Galanopoulos an easy passage to goal.
Only moments later, Thunder’s star keeper Fraser McLaren was controversially sent off on a red card following a collision with Matthew Thurtell just outside the box, completely changing the context of the game.
Despite the best efforts of back up keeper Sermin Sadikovski, the Greens found their mojo and began to control the tempo of the contest, with the one less player for the visitors proving telling.
Within minutes of each other, the Greens found two goals to make it 2-1, and entering into half time it seemed that the home side might walk away with a dominant win.
But the Thunder dug deep in the second half to prove their mettle and prove they belong at the top level, conceding just one second half goal and having many near misses that narrowly escaped the net.
Thunder coach Andy Vargas walked away proud, but disappointed that McLaren was out of action so early.
“I felt the boys gave absolutely everything; in the end, we were a bit hard down by without at least coming away with a point being down a player for the majority of the game,” he said.
“And coming up against the champions, we held our own, and we showed we can compete at this level; if we can produce what we did again in terms of effort, we’ll be a tough team to come up against.”
Vargas explained that the loss of McLaren was just part of the game, but admitted he was a little stumped by it all.
“I felt there was a little bit of a dubious decision; it looked a little bit off-side, which is fine, but Fraser comes out and does the right thing anticipating the bounce and gets a hand on the ball, and I guess he was outside the box and in the letter of the law, I guess it’s potentially a red card; I’ve spoken to Fraser, and we have to accept it, but I’m not going to fault him,” he said.
“It’s part of football, we have to live and learn.”
And in what proved to be a game full of heat and an atmosphere, Vargas said his side certainly took up to the Greens, and believes his side wasn’t far off the mark.
“We understand that it’s not just round one, it’s an occasion, and it had the atmosphere of finals football; everyone’s been working hard, and all we wanted to do was compete, and there was ferocity in the air, and we knew we had to have a little bit of bite,” he said.
“We knew they’d have a strong plan, and they’ve got a style and reputation that makes them an attractive team, but we can only control what we control; of course we’ll pay respect to them, but we want to focus on ourselves.
“It takes time to build into an attractive brand and style of football; I can’t be prouder of the group, to be honest, we proved we belong.
The Thunder’s task won’t get any easier on Saturday, with South Melbourne to make the trip down to George Andrews Reserve for their first game of the season.
Kick-off is at 7pm.
