WESTERN Suburbs was made to pay for a 10-minute blackout in a 2-1 loss to Altona Magic in the Football Federation Victoria men’s state league 1 at Ralph Reserve on Saturday.
The Blues switched off for a brief period after the half-time interval and the Magic hit them with all their force with goals to Rini Muriqi and Juso Julardzija providing the foundation to victory.
“It was wet, it was slippery, it was a pretty tight game,” Blues coach Lenny Catalano told the Weekly.
“Then at the start of the second half they broke us twice on that left side.”
Click on the image below for our gallery of the big game.
The Blues threw everything at the visitors in the last 30 minutes.
They managed to find a goal from the penalty spot. Substitute striker James O’Sullivan made a confident run into the box and was brought down.
Simon Kelly was rewarded with the chance to step up and slot a goal from the penalty spot.
“We still had 15 minutes to go,” Catalano said.
The Blues’ season is at the crossroads. They need all three points from their Friday night blockbuster on the road with Port Melbourne Sharks if they want to stay alive in the promotion race.
Meanwhile, Sunshine George Cross played out a seven-goal thriller with Werribee City at Chaplin Reserve.
Unfortunately, the Georgies were on the wrong end of a 4-3 scoreline.
In the Victorian Premier League, the Green Gully Cavaliers had a 1-0 win over Southern Stars.
SCOREBOARD
VPL: Green Gully Cavaliers 1 Southern Stars 0
SL1: Western Suburbs 1 Altona Magic 2; Sunshine George Cross 3 Werribee City 4
SL2: Keilor Park 1 Brunswick City 0; Altona City 0 Westgate 0
SL3: Sydenham Park 1 Avondale Heights 1; North Sunshine Eagles 0 Sunbury United 1; Cairnlea 1 Melbourne University 3
PL1: Maribyrnong Greens 1 Westvale 2
PL3: Darebin United 2 Balmoral 1
