Some fixtures carry more than three points, and Friday night at Green Gully Reserve was one of them. Thirteenth against fourteenth, the two sides at the foot of the NPL Victoria table, and the Cavaliers delivered when the season demanded it, beating Dandenong Thunder 3-1.
The start set the tone for the whole night. Bilal Habib struck inside the opening minutes to put Gully in front before Thunder had found their feet, and the early goal did what early goals do for a side short on confidence, settling nerves and letting the game open up on home terms. Joshua Hope doubled the advantage midway through the first half, and for the first time in months Gully went to the break holding a two-goal lead that their football had fully earned.
Thunder made a fight of it after the interval, as a side scrapping for its NPL life was always going to. Laat Manyec pulled one back not long after the restart and the visitors had their spell, but the momentum swing that has sunk Gully so often this season never fully arrived. The night turned for good when Frank Busasa collected his second yellow card fifteen minutes from time, and with the extra man Gully finished the job rather than clinging on. Substitute Yusuf Ahmed made the points safe with a third goal late on, a finish that let the last stretch be played out in comfort rather than the usual anxiety.
It was a clean sweep of Thunder across the club on the weekend, with the under 20s winning 3-0 and the under 23s 3-1, and the senior result was the night’s real currency. The honest picture is that Gully remain bottom on 13 points, now two behind Thunder and six adrift of Bentleigh Greens with five rounds to play. Nobody at the club will pretend the mountain has shrunk much. But survival was mathematically slipping away without this result, and the recent form line, wins over South Melbourne, Bentleigh and now Thunder in the past month, says this team has not accepted its fate.
Dandenong City, the side three spots above, come to Green Gully Reserve on Friday night. Same equation, same requirement. Win, and the run home gets very interesting.
Cavaliers!
