Western United fell to a 3-1 defeat in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men Westgate Derby against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Sunday.
Victory got off to a flying start with a goal inside eight minutes but Noah Botic buried his first goal of the season soon after to have the teams level at 1-1 going into half-time.
An early goal in the second-half and another 20 minutes later saw Victory clinch the win in the end as United looks ahead to a return to Ironbark Fields next week.
Western United Team News
There was a late blow to the Western United side with captain Ben Garuccio forced out due to a calf injury. Charbel Shamoon returned at left-back in his place.
Tomoki Imai made a timely return at centre-back with Dylan Leonard suspended, while Rhys Bozinovski came into midfield to replace the injured Sebastian Pasquali.
First Half
Melbourne Victory were the fast starters in the game, immediately penning United back in its defensive third and creating chaos in the box.
A series of early chances went begging for the visitors but the opener wasn’t long in coming as Zinedine Machach fired into the roof of the net on eight minutes.
Victory remained in attack mode until United put its first quality move together just past the quarter hour, working the ball from back to front and seeing Riku Danzaki’s cross narrowly miss Botic’s head.
After his hat-trick of assists last week, Botic had his sights set firmly on a first goal of the campaign and he got it soon after with a trademark piece of predatory strikers’ play in the box.
Latching onto a poor defensive header, Botic knew exactly where the goal was as he controlled and struck on the swivel, burying his left-footed effort into the bottom corner.
Patrick Kisnorbo’s side responded by getting straight back on the front foot with Matt Sutton kept busy in goal and the back four standing tall in front of him in the midst of each oncoming attack.
United continued to defend well and looked menacing on the counter and in instances of sustained possession, very nearly snatching the lead before the break when Matthew Grimaldi rattled the post, the effort then rebounding of Jack Duncan’s back and out for a corner.
Second Half
Western United looked to build on that positive end to the first half, but that hope was quickly undone as Victory found the net just over two minutes after the restart.
After Ryan Teague won a header in midfield, Nikos Vergos got in behind and despite Kane Vidmar marshalling him towards a tighter angle, the Greek striker managed to fit his strike between Sutton’s legs and into the net.
Having regained the lead, Victory set about controlling proceedings thereafter, slowing the pace down to keep United at arm’s length.
The Green and Black enjoyed some spells of possession and looked to find holes in Victory’s defence to exploit, but the visitors remained stout and picked up a third goal with just over 20 minutes to play when Bruno Fornaroli finished into the bottom corner.
Ultimately, it was an afternoon where United was second best on the day and the team will now look ahead to a return home to Tarneit as Macarthur FC come to Ironbark Fields next Saturday.
