NPL preview: Nunawading v Victory

NPL preview: Nunawading v Victory

Melbourne Victory makes the trip to Nunawading City in the NPL 3 Victoria on Saturday.

Summary

Victory is aiming to bounce back following losses to the Preston Lions and Whittlesea Ranges.

Despite having its chances, Victory fell short against Whittlesea at Epping Stadium on Sunday.

Nishan Velupillay scored his first goal of the season with the equaliser early in the second half, and Victory looked the more likely winner before conceding late.

Victory is eighth with four points from four games ahead of its trip to Mahoneys Reserve.

Nunawading, which has former Victory A-League stars Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Michael Theo in its squad, is 10th.

The teams last met in July 2018, when Victory recorded a 3-2 win.

General Manager – Football Drew Sherman’s pre-match thoughts

“Obviously it’s an important game for us, though performances have been okay, we’ve now lost two games on the spin and with aspirations of a successful season it’s important that performances can turn into points on the table. 

“We’ve identified areas we feel we need to be better from the weekend; that ability to compete and deal with a more direct style is certainly something we need to be equipped to handle but we’ve also spent time rerehearsing some of our build-up patterns so that we can execute them more proficiently and quickly. We just felt that although we’ve been getting into good areas that extra little touch or that little bit of sloppiness has stopped us converting receiving in these positions into creating real goalscoring threats.

“There’ll be some changes as the players need to learn that at this level failure to pick up points can’t be rewarded with continued opportunities to play. So we’re hoping this week a few new faces put their hands up to cement a starting position.”

This week

NPL 3 Victoria: Nunawading City v Melbourne Victory (Saturday, April 24 at 3.00pm AEST at Mahoneys Reserve, Forest Hill)
U21 NPL 3 Victoria: Nunawading City v Melbourne Victory (Saturday, April 24 at 1.00pm AEST at Mahoneys Reserve, Forest Hill)
U19 NPL 3 Victoria: Nunawading City v Melbourne Victory (Saturday, April 24 at 11.00am AEST at Mahoneys Reserve, Forest Hill)
U17 NPL 2: Melbourne Victory v Werribee City (Sunday, April 25 at 1.15pm AEST at Harvest Home Recreation Reserve, Melbourne)
U16 NPL 1: Oakleigh Cannons v Melbourne Victory (Sunday, April 25 at 4.30pm AEST at Jack Edwards Reserve, Oakleigh)
U15 NPL 3 North/West: Melbourne Victory v Brimbank Stallions (Sunday, April 25 at 11.30am AEST at Harvest Home Recreation Reserve, Melbourne)
U14 NPL 3 North/West: Melbourne Knights v Melbourne Victory (Sunday, April 25 at 10am AEST at Knights Stadium, Melbourne)

Last week

NPL 3 Victoria: Victory U21s 1 (Velupillay 48′) Whittlesea Ranges 2
U21 NPL 3 Victoria: Victory U19s 7 (Anastovski 8′, Duratovic 23’/57’/76′, Paneras 33’/86′, Parish 70′) Whittlesea Ranges 0
U19 NPL 3 Victoria: Victory U17s 7 (Ganino 5’/28’/71’/88′, Di Meo 32′, Stamatelos 58′, Gust 70′) Whittlesea Ranges 1
U17 NPL 2: Victory U16s 0 South Melbourne 1
U16 NPL 1: Victory U15s 1 (Lumu 65′) Eltham Redbacks 0
U15 NPL 3 North/West: Goulburn Valley Suns 0 Victory U14s 10 (Gottoli 10′, Dermentzoglou 37’/40′, Payendeh 38′, Marmura 48′, Hoang 57′, Harris 62’/65’/67’/68′)
U14 NPL 3 North/West: Victory U13s 0 Hume City 0