Their first away match of the NPL2 season has spelled defeat for the Goulburn Valley Suns, who suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of Werribee City at the weekend.
The Suns hit the road to Galvin Park Reserve on the back of a valiant showing in their home opener, earning a point in a nil-all draw after going down to 10-men early against Manningham United Blues.
It was a different story in the goals department on Saturday and it didn’t take long for the home side to find the back of the net.
A 19th-minute Werribee goal had the Suns in hot water, but the visitors responded immediately through Irish recruit Jamie Hamilton, who notched his first goal of the season to bring scores level.
Six minutes later the visitors took the lead through Darcy Pawlik, the Suns hanging on to their one-goal lead heading into the break.
A half-time team talk did the job for City, which came out firing on all cylinders after the interval to grab two goals through danger man Nemanja Spasojevic.
Last-minute attempts to claw the game back came up short for the Suns, who were left to dwell on a bitter defeat on the trip home.
Suns mentor Craig Carley said his side was nowhere near the level it expects to be on Saturday.
“We just didn’t really turn up on the day, the performance probably reflected the scoreline,” he said.
“We didn’t really implement our game plan, it’s just disappointing, we know our standards and we know we’re better than that.”
A quick response will be top of the agenda this weekend, when the Suns face a formidable Pascoe Vale in round three.
“Every game in this competition is going to be a tough game, we know that if we don’t turn up and perform at our best we’ll get turned over,” Carley said.
“The challenges don’t come much bigger than Pascoe Vale, they’ve started the season relatively well, they have aspirations for promotion themselves and it’s going to be a tough game.
“I certainly think that on our day we can match absolutely anyone, but we’ve got to hit those non-negotiables — that work-rate, that effort — and if we can do that then we’re in with a chance.”