Melbourne Victory continued its good form in the NPL2 West with a 3-0 win over Langwarrin on Sunday.
Summary
A brace from Nicholas Sette and a Birkan Kirdar strike at Epping Stadium saw Victory to its fourth straight win.
After its seventh win of the season, Victory remains fifth on the table, but it is just five points off top spot.
Victory dominated the opening stages and it took a deserved lead midway through the first half.
Sette – making his first start since returning from injury – drilled a fine finish into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
An end-to-end finish to the half saw Victory goalkeeper Majak Mawith, 18, make a save to deny John Kuol before the host almost doubled its advantage.
Yazid Said, 18, produced a brilliant run through the middle, but the winger was unable to beat Robert Acs in a one-on-one.
Victory made the perfect start to the second half as Sette, 18, doubled his team’s lead.
The winger, who signed a Hyundai A-League deal with the club this week, beat his marker inside the area before firing into the bottom corner from an angle to make it 2-0.
After Mawith made another strong save to deny Paul Speed, Victory added a third.
The goalkeeper’s quick release saw Said break before playing in Kirdar, the 16-year-old – who also signed a contract with the club this week – making no mistake with his finish.
Both teams had their chances in the final half-hour, but goalkeepers Mawith and Acs ensured there were no further goals.
Head coach Gareth Naven
“I was happy for the players today because it was on us to make sure that the importance of us being very competitive last week against City came through in this game against Langwarrin and today that was evident, for the players to understand the effort is consistent no matter what or who we play and I think that is really important for youth players to understand. You need to produce this every week. Every week for us is a big game and I thought the players did that with some nice goals.
“I thought at times Langwarrin had a lot of control of the play in the second half and I thought it was important for our boys to scramble hard at times because the match is like that – to stay in the game, to protect your goal, to defend inside your 18-yard box, to clear headers, block shots. It’s an important thing for them to remember that sometimes the game is in the other team’s balance and you’ve got to see it out and I thought at times they really saw the game out as well.”
Under-20s
Victory’s under-20s returned to winning ways, beating Langwarrin 1-0.
NPL2 West 2018 Round 15
Melbourne Victory 3 (Nicholas Sette 22’/47′, Birkan Kirdar 61′)
Langwarrin 0
Melbourne Victory: Majak Mawith; Andrew Visciglio, Benjamin Carrigan (c), Aaron Anderson, Luke Goulding; Thierry Iradukunda, Brady Quinn; Nicholas Sette (Maker Maker), Birkan Kirdar (William Wilson), Yazid Said (Nicholas Hatzigeorgiou); Jack Palazzolo.
Next week
Victory makes the trip to Elcho Park to face the North Geelong Warriors on Saturday, June 9.