It was another successful weekend of Central Victorian League action, with the region’s sides continuing to impress.
In the League One men’s competition Shepparton United continued its recent run of form, downing Strathfieldsaye Colts United 7-0 at McEwen Reserve.
United was simply too good on Sunday afternoon, with Joe Worrall opening the scoring early, before captain Ramos Al-Gazaly scored the first of his three goals for the game.
Worrall and Al-Gazaly were joined on the score sheet by Roven Shaholli, Alisina Alizada and Mohammed Almussawi, with coach Lewis Coyle saying the game was the side’s first at full-strength for the year
“I think everyone had a good game,” Coyle said.
“In the changing room before the game we were saying ‘right, okay, it’s the start of the business end of the season, we’ve got to go out now and put ourselves into the position where at the end of the season we’re not struggling in terms of places in the final’.
“I think everyone did their jobs perfectly, I don’t think there were many players below a seven rating, it was good to see what we trained on and what we worked on came true, everyone took it on board.”
The win moves United back into third position on the table, six points behind second-placed Tatura and nine off league-leading Shepparton South.
The Ibises and South proved too strong for their opponents on Saturday evening.
Playing in the unusual 5pm Saturday timeslot, Tatura managed a solid 6-2 win over Epsom at Epsom.
A brace to Zac Ferlauto along with goals to Christian Corso, Thomas Leech, Cody Sellwood and coach Tristan Zito helped the visitors secure the impressive victory.
At La Trobe University, Shepparton South was equally as dominant, cruising to a 4-1 win over La Trobe.
Nicholas Mori continued his solid goal-scoring form, putting two in the back of the net, while Glenn Murison and an own goal rounded out the impressive victory.
In the League Two men’s competition, Shepparton Jaguars won a 4-3 thriller against Moama-Echuca Border Raiders.
- In the League One women’s competition, Shepparton South fell to a strong La Trobe University team 2-0.
The disappointing loss has United fall behind the top three teams on the ladder and, while it still holds a four-point buffer over fifth-placed Strathdale, a win this weekend will be vital.
In the League Two women’s competition, Tatura picked up another win, downing Epsom 1-0 away from home.
The Ibises, who remain on top of the ladder, found it difficult to break through the Epsom defence early, with the home side throwing numbers behind the ball in order to prevent conceding.
A Colette Suter goal shortly after half-time ultimately proved the difference between the two teams and Tatura coach Damien Rosella said it was a good result in the end.
“It was one of them games,” Rosella said.
“On their home pitch they were going to be hard to beat, they put lots of players behind the ball and we had to stay calm and keep our structure.
“We had to sort of change how we played, we pushed it out wide more in the second half and credit to the girls they did that.”
Rosella said it was one of the Ibises best performances of the season, with Nicola Minicozzi, Gabriela Posteraro and Jessica Posteraro performing well.
He said while the team now had a five-point buffer on top of the table, the players were not getting ahead of themselves, with a big game against Moama-Echuca coming up.