By Justin Schwarze
Dandenong was left with no clear ruler as late drama caused City and Thunder to share the points in the highly anticipated derby in the NPL.
The round 3 game was played at Thunder’s home field, George Andrews Reserve, on Saturday night.
City was looking for its first win of the fresh campaign, while Thunder snagged a 2-1 win against Green Gully in the opening round.
Play was ignited when Thunder defender Mersim Memeti played a poor pass through midfield, leading to a quick possession turnover in a dangerous area.
A nice ball was played over the defence to the attacking threat of Will Bower, who managed to keep himself onside.
He carried the ball into the box before holding up, playing a short pass to a breaking Thomas Giannakopoulos.
Giannakopoulos took one touch then fired from outside the box with a wonderful strike that beat the diving keeper to put City 1-0 up after just six minutes.
The strike was powerful enough to get the best of long time A-League keeper Jamie Young, taking one bounce before speeding into the bottom left corner.
The visitors looked to double their lead when Bower was in again, making a good run with the ball.
He was swiftly met by Young, forcing Bower to push his shot wide.
A good buildup from Thunder saw a flurry of passes before a one touch pass from striker Hassan Jalloh laid the ball off at the feet of Daniel Clark.
Jalloh made his run while Clark played a beauty, chipping both City defenders, allowing for Jalloh to run onto the ball in full stride inside the box.
Jalloh’s first touch was magnificent, carefully sliding it past a scrambling Pierce Clark to even the scoreline in the 19th minute.
Jalloh has started the season on fire, the goal marking three straight games he has found the back of the net for Thunder.
Right on the brink of halftime, Thunder had a corner which was deflected into the box, fortunately finding Yuki Ushida all alone on the left who released a shot which beat Clark but appeared to be going wide.
However, Kyle Taylor turned in the shot at the goalline to lift the hosts into the lead right before the whistle to the break.
Thunder came close to taking their advantage to 3-1 after the intermission when Jalloh crisply cut inside the City defence, getting a shot away but was bettered by a desperate dive from Clark.
The clock slowly ticked past the 90th minute mark, leaving just a few minutes for City to find a leveller.
With seven and a half minutes of stoppage time played, City had a corner with the full time whistle imminent.
A high, looping corner landed perfectly onto the forehead of substitute George Lambadaridis who managed to caress the ball up and into the right corner, bringing the visitors a remarkable equaliser at the death.
Thunder was unable to get anything going in the final minute of injury time, leaving the derby all square at 2-2 at full time.
“For us, it’s probably a really good result, just obviously being the Dandy Derby,” City manager Nick Tolios reflected.
“We reassessed and at half time we changed up the way we were playing, and I thought we came out in the second half and we were pretty dominant, in regards to possession and what chances we gave up.”
The thrilling result salvaged a point for City, who are unbeaten but yet to win a game this season, drawing all three of their matches thus far.
They’ve scored seven goals but also conceded seven.
“Everyone’s made it clear we haven’t had success against Thunder, so to not lose is very positive for us, so we can take some positivity into this next game against Hume,” Tolios said.
“I think it would’ve been harder if we dropped another game, especially after leading 1-0 to one of our rivals, I think it would’ve been a lot harder to bounce back on.
“The energy’s still positive here, I think that’s the biggest key is that we didn’t drop points, we stuck together, we fought pretty hard to get that result and the pleasing thing was that the guys that came off the bench that weren’t starting made a massive impact.”
In round 4, City will host Hume City.
Hume is coming off a draw against Green Gully.
“I think we’ve still got loads of improvement but we’re creating a lot of chances,” Tolios said.
“So far we’ve taken some, but not all, because if we did the scoreline in our first two games would’ve been a lot different, that’s one of the biggest positives to take out of it.”
On the other end, a frustrating finish for Thunder, finding themselves dropping two points right at the end.
They sit sixth with a win, loss and a draw early in the season.
Thunder will travel to take on Altona Magic in round 4.
