Spring Hills’ good start to the FFV state league 4 west season continued with a hard-fought win against Melbourne City on Saturday.
Coming off a 7-1 win in round one, the Stallions were keen to make it two from two.
Stallions team manager Joe Febbraio said, like all games between the two sides, it was a difficult one, with the Stallions winning 2-1.
“Every time we play them it’s a tough encounter and it was no different. We were happy to get the three points,” he said.
“We thought we controlled it for the most part. They scored a fantastic goal in the first half from some individual brilliance.
“We equalised within 10 minutes and it was 1-1 at half-time. We reinforced with the lads what they had to do at half-time and scored one early on and things were going along nicely.”
The last part of the game was full of drama, with both teams having players sent off.
Melbourne City went down a player first, before the Stallions had Jason Trajkovski sent off with a red card for a late tackle.
Melbourne City had the chance to steal a point late when they had a penalty shot but it missed. An incident after that shot resulted in a second Melbourne City player being sent from the field, leaving it with nine players.
Rocky Calfapietra scored both goals for the Stallions.
Febbraio said early wins were key in what looked like being a close season. He said they were still coming together as a team.
“The first two games have been quite good,” he said.
“We’ve got a bit of a rebuild on and we’ve got some new players and some new young kids being integrated.
“Everything is going quite well and they are fitting into the side and style that David [Maglovski] wants.”
The Stallions are one of two clubs to have two wins after the first two rounds.
They this week journey to Bell Park, a traditionally difficult pitch for travelling teams.
It was a big weekend for the Stallions, with their gala day on Sunday with sides from throughout the club playing each other in one last practice match before the season starts.
In other FFV state league 4 west results, Westside Strikers had a 3-3 draw with Melbourne University.
Raul Isac, Addisu Gebrehiwot and Daniel Sfetcopoulos were the goalscorers for the Strikers as they had their second straight draw.
In state league 5 west, Melton Phoenix suffered its first loss of the season, losing to West Point 2-1.
In state league 1 north-west, Caroline Springs George Cross remains winless after losing to Sydenham Park 2-0.
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