By Marcus Uhe
A 2-1 victory away from home saw Dandenong Thunder shake off a controversial week for the club and maintain a stranglehold in the Dandenong Derby, downing cross-town rivals Dandenong City in the National Premier League (NPL) on Friday night.
The Memeti Cup remains draped in Thunder red and black, stretching their unbeaten run over City to 11 matches.
Stunning conditions greeted the two sides as a balmy Autumn evening offered a picturesque sunset over the Valley before kickoff.
Despite City doing much of the attacking in the opening stages, with one thrust seeing a double-save from Pierce Clark in the Thunder goal, it was Thunder who opened the scoring through Wade Dekker in the 13th minute.
The veteran needed only a sniff of an opportunity and pounced on some lax defending from the home side.
A throw-in saw the ball launched deep into Thunder’s attacking area, and a poor clearance from Kenny Athiu failed to alleviate the pressure on his defenders.
Mersim Memeti won the ball back in his own half, and the ball was whipped out wide to Jay Romanovski left alone on the right hand side.
Jack Webster put out that fire, only for Birkan Kirdar to light another with a shot from distance.
Giannikopoulos blocked that, but the ball took flight, drifting perfectly into Dekker’s airspace for a right-foot volley nestled into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
Having broken the deadlock, Thunder began to swarm the City defenders like a pack of hyenas on wounded prey, pressuring the ball carrier at every turn.
Dekker, Sulemani and Romanovski and Kirdar buzzed, hunted and stalked, with City’s desire to play the ball from deep in defence bringing them unstuck.
In a huge blow for the home side, Jacob Alexander’s return only lasted 25 minutes before he was substituted out of the game with a lower leg injury.
The defender had given City a real spark as an attacking threat down the left-hand side of the pitch and they missed his drive in his absence, seen on crutches after the match.
It was Thunder’s press that resulted in their second goal before half time, as Kirdar gave his side a 2-0 cushion.
City’s clearance from a corner only reached half way and was sent right back into the danger zone by Thunder defenders.
The ball found Sulemani deep, who beat his first defender but then lost the ball and he shaped to strike with his right boot.
The loose ball spilled to a sprinting Kirdar on the right, who sizzled a shot low across the face of John Hall with his first touch and celebrated with the Thunder faithful on the hill.
Down two at half time, City was going to be forced to draw on the resilience that fuelled last season’s campaign if they were to maintain their unbeaten run at home.
With the returning Daniel Alessi partnering Memeti at the heart of defence, City’s forward thrusts looked hopeful rather than organised, despite possessing more of the ball after half time.
Athiu, their talisman up front, was hardly given any space all night, as his teammates began to take long shots out of hope of penetrating Clark’s goal.
Reward for possession came in the 80th minute through last season’s leading scorer Damian Iaconis.
A shot from Jay Lino was saved by Clark off his line, the parry falling perfectly for Iaconis who put the ball into an open net off his quad.
City suddenly had a spark and made Thunder defend strenuously for the final 10 minutes as the visitors appeared to tire late in the contest.
Iaconis had the best of the chances to level the scores in stoppage time but could not convert on a golden opportunity.
In a near carbon copy of his successful attempt on goal just minutes earlier, he found himself in the right place at the right time after another Clark save, but couldn’t control the ball at speed, putting it wide of the goal mouth.
With the clock on the digital scoreboard stopping at 90 minutes, only the referee was aware of how much of the six minutes of added time had elapsed, making for a nervous finale for Thunder supporters.
The final few minutes saw Clark made a handful more saves, with the dying stages of the match halted by an offside flag close to his goal.
The referee’s final whistle elicited thumps on the advertising boards from Thunder fans as players joined them on the sidelines to sing the club song.
Manager Adam Piddick was proud of his side’s work rate and ability to hold on to the lead throughout the contest, crediting Clark’s double save in the opening minutes as setting the tone for the match.
“We started quite slow and from then I think we had the better of that first half,” Piddick said.
“We were up 2-0 and it could have been 3-0, but in saying that, we did hold on at the end.
“We had a plan to hold on and try to catch them on the counter but we weren’t really efficient enough on the counter and there were a lot of tired legs out there.
“We want to play high and get to the position where we can do that for the full 90 (minutes). “Obviously we’re not at that position, fitness-wise or sharpness-wise, but that takes time to get to and practice, consistently working on it at training and getting the loads and high-speed metres up.”
With five completed matches under his belt, Piddick has Thunder at two wins, two losses and a draw, having taken the reins only weeks before the season kicked-off.
Weathering an early storm, there’s definite signs of progress for the Thunder, with the challenge now to become a side that can deliver on a consistent basis.
“It’s ups and downs, you have your good weeks and your bad weeks,” Piddick said.
“I think it’s about trying to get a consistent quality of training and intensity of training every week and until we can get that week-in week-out, that’s when we know we’re in a good place.
“At the moment, we’re still working towards that.
“There’s no secret that we started the year quite slow and are in an unfortunate position but the boys are working hard and they got their reward today.”
Thunder heads to Keilor Downs to face Green Gully next week with City travelling to Moreland.
