Dandenong Thunder sent a strong message to the NPL after battering Altona 6-0 at home in round 17.
At a cold and wet George Andrews Reserve, the scoring was opened just before the 10 minute mark by Kyle Taylor when his shot took a wicked deflection and skied into the bottom right corner.
The Magic keeper could only watch in disbelief as the completely unpredictable ball raced into his own net.
Just eight minutes later, a strong attack down the right hand side saw the ball played into the dangerous Yuki Uchida.
Uchida’s shot was powerful but kept out by the keeper, but Hassan Jalloh was lurking to score the rebound and double the hosts’ scoreboard advantage.
The Altona defence seemed utterly rattled, as it then cheaply gave the ball away in the back half to launch yet another Dandenong offensive charge.
Uchida quickly slipped in Jay Romanovski who finished clinically to provide Thunder with their third before the clock had even reached 20 minutes.
The Magic managed to pull together and not concede for the remainder of the half, heading to the dressing room down 0-3.
Dandenong had scored three of its four shots on target in the first half.
If Altona had any hopes of coming back in the second half, they were completely dashed when Thunder executed a brilliant attack right off the kickoff.
Uchida chipped the defence and found Ali Sulemani streaking down the right wing.
Sulemani’s cross was impressively precise, landing right on the forehead of Daniel Clark who was free to header it home for Dandenong’s fourth 20 seconds into the second half.
Thunder’s fifth was the best of the night, as Clark brought down a cross and laid it off to Mersim Memeti who rocketed one off the post and in from long range.
The sixth came in the 70th minute through a textbook counterattack, as Taylor played a fabulous through ball into Muamet Selimovski.
Selimovski just had the keeper to beat and tucked it away nicely to put the icing on the cake for the home side.
The win puts Dandenong back into third momentarily, while still awaiting for Oakleigh’s result.
A massive challenge and potential season-defining clash awaits in round 18, with Thunder travelling to face first-placed Heidelberg.
