Melbourne Victory went down to the Goulburn Valley Suns 2-1 in the NPL2 West on Sunday.
Summary
Victory dominated the first half and took a deserved lead into the break thanks to Brandon Lauton’s opener at Epping Stadium.
However, a pair of set-pieces – both headed in by Craig Carley – proved its undoing in the second half.
Victory made a bright start and opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
A blistering counter-attack led to Andrew Visciglio smashing an effort against the crossbar, but Lauton was on hand to lob Suns goalkeeper Fraser Greenwood for his first goal of the season.
Victory controlled the first half and almost took a deserved 2-0 lead just before half-time.
Captain Jonathan Vakirtzis, who scored a stunning goal in last week’s win over the Eastern Lions, went close again, his 30-yard strike hitting the post with Greenwood unmoved.
The Suns made a strong start to the second half and drew level in the 54th minute, Carley heading in a corner.
Goulburn Valley took the lead nine minutes later via another set-piece, with Carley again on the end of the delivery, and held on for its win.
Head coach Gareth Naven
“The small things kill us – defending set-pieces is important to us. Those two that we didn’t defend well, punishes us, coming from a position of relative control, in possession, defending. I thought the effort of our players was good and we need to get better at the small things and one of those things is defending set-pieces.
“In saying that, we had opportunities to finish them as well. The small things are really important to us and we need to get better at them.”
Under-20s
Victory’s under-20s extended their unbeaten run to six matches with a 2-2 draw against the Goulburn Valley Suns.
NPL2 West 2018 Round 11
Melbourne Victory 1 (Brandon Lauton 8′)
Goulburn Valley Suns 2 (Craig Carley 54’/63′)
Melbourne Victory: Majak Mawith; Andrew Visciglio, Benjamin Carrigan, Aaron Anderson, Jonathan Vakirtzis (c) (Luke Goulding); Thierry Iradukunda, Nicholas Hatzigeorgiou; Brandon Lauton, Birkan Kirdar, Yazid Said; Jack Palazzolo (Maker Maker).
Next week
Victory is at home again in Round 12, hosting Murray United at Epping Stadium on Saturday, May 12.
