GREEN Gully has booked a spot in the Victorian Premier League preliminary final against minor premiers Dandenong Thunder after a hard fought 3-1 victory over Northcote City.
Despite the even contest, goals from Osagie Ederaro, Matthew Sanders and Jason Hayne were enough to end Northcote’s impressive season.
Following the game Green Gully coach Ian Dobson said he was looking forward to the encounter against Dandenong Thunder.
“I’m pleased that we’re playing Dandenong because I just want to have a crack at them,” he said. “I’m quite looking forward to the game.”
Despite a scoreline that looked comfortable, Dobson conceded the Cavs were not at their best on Sunday.
“I was disappointed we weren’t playing enough football … too many long balls from my coaching perspective and we gave the ball away too cheaply.”
Green Gully started the better of the two and players thought they had taken the lead five minutes in after Sanders placed his header into the back of the net. But it was ruled offside.
However, it wasn’t too long for the deadlock to be broken as a Brian Vanega shot caused a mixup between goalkeeper Chris Theodoridis and Antoni Jankovski which allowed Ederaro to tap the ball into the back of the net from inside the six-yard box.
The second half begun much like the first, with end to end action before Northcote City found the equaliser when Dean Piemonte hit a free kick to the back post that was left untouched and sneaked into the goal.
However Green Gully got back into the lead shortly after as Hayne played a cut back to Sanders who found the right bottom corner, beating an outstretched Theodoridis.
With Northcote looking to get back into the game, Hayne was able to break the Northcote defence on a counter attack and had an eye on goal before being brought down by Theodoridis.
Hayne stepped up for the resulting penalty to slot the ball past Theodoridis and put Green Gully in the preliminary final.
Despite the impressive season after the loss of itsr State Knockout Cup-winning coach Peter Tsolakis and key players from last season, Northcote City Coach Goran Lozanovski admitted being slightly disappointed as he felt his side performed better on the day.
“My first job was to rebuild the club and we have rebuilt the club,” he said.
“It’s been very pleasing.
“I think everyone at the club is over the moon at making the finals.
“But you’re always going to feel a little bit of disappointment, especially knowing how the game went and that you probably should’ve been a couple of goals up.
“But credit to Green Gully, they are a very disciplined team.
“Obviously the one lesson to learn from this is that pretty football doesn’t always win you finals games.”
After rebuilding the team this season and reaching the finals, Lozanovski said it was important to keep the squad together.
“Our aim is from today onwards to make sure we keep this playing group. It is an important part of the club and obviously last year we lost a handful of players which hurt the club and dismantled the team.”
Green Gully’s clash with minor premier Dandenong Thunder is for a spot in the grand final against Oakleigh Cannons. It will be played at AAMI Park.
The time and venue of the preliminary final is yet to be confirmed.
Green Gully: Nikola Roganovic, Daniel Jones, Rodrigo Vargas, Mitch Bissinger, Jason Hayne, Jeffrey Fleming, Johnathan Munoz (Brent Fisher 70 min), Mile Medjedovic, Mathew Sanders (Joel Nikolic 87 min), Osagie Ederado, Brian Vanega (Scott Robson 82 min).
Unused subs: Rhyss Keane, Hamid Basma.
Goals: Ederaro 24 min, Sanders 62 min, Hayne 81 min.
Northcote City: Chris Theodoridis, Antoni Jankovski (Wade Dekker 73 min), Bonel Obradovic, Parys Okai, Johnathon Voulgaris , Kristian Konstantinidis, Dean Piemonte, Adriano Chiappetta, Alex Rojas, James Kalafatidis, Milos Lujic.
Unused Subs: Luke Gavalas, Ricardo Gonzalez, Bradley Treloar, Michael Catalano.
Goal: Piemonte 55 min.
