Our game against Dandenong City Saturday came off the back of a short week. Tuesday saw our boys see off state league 1 Whittlesea United 4-0 where we saw our opponents go down to 9 men and have a coach sent off however, our boys stuck to their process and were not distracted to deliver us a spot on the national stage with a spot in the FFA Cup round of 32 and also the chance of a Docherty Cup Semi final appearance.
The confidence taken from midweek was evident straight away on Saturday with our boys playing at a tempo our opponents could not keep up with.
Alex Salmon opened the scoring with a bending shot from the edge of the area flying into the top corner. The Dandenong keeper kept his team in the game with a number of great saves. We must learn to convert our dominance in possession into scoreboard pressure as we have found out a number of times this year.
This was evident again Saturday as Dandenong brought themselves level after converting from the penalty spot against the run of play and we found ourselves going into the halftime break locked at 1-1.
HALF TIME 1 – 1
We were well aware that again as on Tuesday we just needed to be disciplined, trust our process and the result would fall our way.
The second half was as convincing a team performance as we have seen from this group with the entire squad contributing on the day. You can really sense the belief growing in this group and it showed.
Salmon added to his tally from the penalty spot with Kamara and Abetew rounding out the scoring in a great 4-1 win.
Friday presents another test for us against Avondale. If our boys can once again have full belief in one another and their ability then it will put us in good stead for not only Friday but the remainder of 2022.
FINAL SCORE 1 – 4
Report by Tim Paton
Photo by Mark Avellino Photography
