By Marcus Uhe
Dandenong City’s brilliant National Premier League (NPL) Victoria campaign has the club on track to do what no club has achieved before them in the competition’s history.
The season began with coach Nick Tolios telling the Dandenong Journal in February that his side was not content to “make up the numbers” and had ambitions to play finals.
Sitting at seventh after 18 weeks and with a huge scalp under their belt in the form of a road win over Oakleigh Cannons in round 17, the squad has every chance of qualifying for the top six and etching its name into the history books, as the first side to qualify for finals in the NPL’s top division after receiving promotion the previous year.
On Saturday night, the club’s winning streak came to an end against the Melbourne Knights in a 5-2 thrashing, but the strong run of form in the middle of the season comes on the back of what Tolios described as a ‘line in the sand’ moment for the club.
Having played everyone once at Round 13 and suffering consecutive 3-1 losses, City had four wins, five losses and four draws and a negative goal differential to show for what started a promising campaign, but risked falling into the mid-table bracket of teams that become forgotten come season’s end.
“All we want to do in the back half is to have a crack at everyone, not sit off, try to get as many points as we can and put pressure on guys in the top six,” Tolios said of the attitude following the line in the sand moment.
“We were very unlucky against Avondale at home, where we probably could have been two/three goals up in the first half, but they defended well and we conceded in the 96th minute.
“The ladder never lies, I think that’s one thing that you’re pretty consistent in.
“We’ve hung on, we always competed, we’ll always be in games regardless of the scoreline, and that’s been the main tick of the box from my point of view, knowing what the team’s like.”
Since Round 13, City have been one of the competition’s form teams.
Continuity in the form of health and consecutive starting lineups for two weeks has been a major factor in the revival, culminating in a hat-trick of 2-0 wins.
They entered Saturday’s clash with Melbourne on that three-game winning streak, having only conceded once in the previous four clashes, and with the goal difference back to even.
And while the side lacks a consistent threat up top due to prized recruit Kenny Athiu battling injuries, City has manufactured goals from a handful of other sources, in Tim Atherinos and George Lambadaridis, each with five each.
“Defences win championships and you see that everywhere around the world; you don’t leak goals and you stay in games as long as you can, there’s always opportunities,” Tolios said.
“If you’ve got the quality, sometimes you’ll take that chance in the last minute to get that result.
“That was important, to try and cement our defensive record and we’ve done that, and along the way we’ve also started scoring again.”
Athiu and midfielder Danny Kim add to a team both awash with experience, in Jack Webster, Lambadaridis and John Hall, while Tolios has succeeded in blooding and getting game time into emerging stars, like Atherinos, Tom Giannokolopous, and Jackson Lino.
Such is the growth in Lino that he has created a headache for Tolios and his coaching staff, forced to deliberate between he and the highly regarded Jacob Alexander, a key to their success in the second division in 2023.
While Saturday’s win takes some shine off the recent resurgence, there’s no better stage to make amends than in a Dandenong Derby, this weekend against cross-town rivals, Dandenong Thunder.
Four of the remaining eight fixtures, beginning with the Derby, are against sides above them on the table after round 18, with Saturday’s results widening the gap between City and Port Melbourne, in sixth place, to four points on the NPL ladder.
The challenge is ahead of them, but the goal of playing finals hasn’t wavered, and won’t waver in the run home.
“There’s a lot of football left to be played and Port Melbourne are a good side, they’ve done a really good job there,” Tolios said on the prospect of playing finals in 2024.
“Our goal has always been to try and get into the finals and that’s a big milestone for us, to be one of the first teams to play finals after being promoted.
“The main goal the club had was to survive and not be a yo-yo team, get promoted and go down; we’ve achieved that one but we always aim to go a bit higher, because if that’s the only goal you’ve got, it’s not a real positive one, is it?
“Pushing for finals is definitely something we want to keep pushing for and we haven’t given up, which is good.
“We know this league is really hard and it’s got a way of kicking you in the teeth as well if you’re not prepared.”
