Melbourne Victory heads to Morwell to take on the Newcastle Jets on Sunday looking to build on a hard-fought win.
Summary
Victory produced a solid display to respond to back-to-back defeats with a 1-0 win over Adelaide United last time.
Catherine Zimmerman’s 78th-minute header proved to be the winner as Victory claimed its second success of the season.
Zimmerman has scored three goals in five games in what is her first Westfield W-League campaign.
She headed in after Melina Ayres got on the end of an Angela Beard set-piece to set up the game’s only goal as Victory bounced back following losses to City and Brisbane Roar.
After another fixture change, Victory will host the Jets at Latrobe City Stadium in Morwell, having initially been scheduled to play Perth Glory.
In a boost for Victory, star forward Lisa De Vanna made her return from a hamstring injury with an appearance off the bench against Adelaide.
Victory has won its past three matches against the Jets, including a record win late last season.
Head coach Jeff Hopkins’ pre-match thoughts
on building on last week’s win…
“It wasn’t our best performance of the season, but it was a step forward from the week before. Obviously when you get a big defeat, it does affect your confidence. I was really pleased with the reaction from the players. Everything that we asked them to do, they really tried to put in action and they did most of it as well. I think, if anything, our quality in possession still wasn’t quite as good as it could’ve been, but I think we recognised that and I think the most important thing was that we rolled our sleeves up and we got back to competing with the opponent which we did really well and just trying to be a little bit better in possession and we were. But it’s something that we’re focusing on again this week, that we need to be better in possession, we need to create more chances, we need to create better chances because now I think we understand what type of team we are. We’re a team that needs to pressure our opponent, I think we sat off them a little bit too much and gave them a little bit too much respect in the first half. Second half we stepped onto them more, we pressured them more and I think we learnt a lesson about ourselves on the weekend, that we need to be a team that is in the face of the opposition and pressing and pressuring them as much as we can, that’s kind of what we’re all about. If nothing else, we got the three points which we definitely needed, we learnt a little bit of a lesson about ourselves and we took a small step forward. We’ve got an opportunity this weekend to do the same again so that’s what the plan’s been this week, we’ve had a couple of good sessions, we had a really tough conditioning session today (Wednesday), girls were in the gym today as well so they’ve worked really hard, earned the day off tomorrow and come in nice and fresh then on Friday and Saturday when we’ve had a bit more of a look at Newcastle and we’ll put a plan in place to try and beat them on Sunday.”
on the Jets…
“I’ve actually quite liked them. They’ve had a few tough games, they’ve been a bit unlucky in some of the games as well. I think with any Newcastle team, you know you’re always going to get a tough, competitive outfit and they’re no different this year. They always make it hard for you so I think it’s going to be the same again this year. They’ve got one or two players that can really cause us a few problems, Tara Andrews is obviously one of them, she’s been in quite good form so we just need to be aware of their two or three key players that might cause us a few problems, but again, as usual, I think we’ll be looking at ourselves a little bit more than the opponent and looking at ways that we can hurt them and make it as difficult as we possibly can for them coming down to Morwell this weekend.”
Last time
Westfield W-League 2019/20 Round 13
Newcastle Jets 0-7 Melbourne Victory
Sunday, February 23, 2020
No.2 Sportsground, Newcastle
Victory recorded its biggest ever Westfield W-League win when the teams met late last season.
Annalie Longo and Darian Jenkins scored braces to go with strikes from Natasha Dowie and Ayres, and a Cassidy Davis own goal.
As it stands
Match details
Melbourne Victory v Newcastle Jets
Latrobe City Stadium, Morwell
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Kick-off: 6.05pm AEDT
Click here to view the COVID-Safe Event Plan for this match
