Hopkins hails Victory’s best performance of the season

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Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins hailed his side’s 3-1 win over Sydney FC as its best performance of the Westfield W-League season.

Darian Jenkins scored a superb second-half brace after Amy Jackson’s opener at Marvel Stadium, where Victory secured a home Semi Final despite Natalie Tobin’s late goal for Sydney.

Hopkins said Saturday’s display was Victory’s best of 2019/20 as it secured second spot on the table.

“I would probably say it was our best performance of the season,” he said.

“Against a very good side I thought we handled the threat of their front three really well, I thought our back three and our goalkeeper defended so well.

“Our two wing-backs were most probably the best they’ve been going forward and defensively and right the way through I could just pick out all the units.

“The midfield did a great job and Tash (Dowie) and Melina (Ayres) did fantastically well up front as well.

“It’s nice to pick your best performance for a game as big as this and for this time of the season as well.”

Wing-backs Jenkins and Angela Beard were particularly impressive for Victory, causing numerous problems throughout.

Hopkins said the impact the duo could have was spoken about in the lead-up to the clash.

“We understood today that the performance of our wing-backs was very important and we kind of stressed that and highlighted it and it’s great to see,” he said.

“It just shows you the types of players they are, they kind of took that pressure on their shoulders and they went with it. I thought both of them were superb.

“Ange played a little bit higher, D had to play a little bit deeper just with the fact of [Princess] Ibini being on her side, but she still contributed a huge amount, obviously the two goals were both fantastic finishes.”

Victory will play its Semi Final against either Sydney FC or the Western Sydney Wanderers at Epping Stadium on Saturday, March 14.