By Tervel Atanasov and Thomas Langmaid
On a cloudy and rainy Saturday, the Yarra Valley team travelled to Narre Warren for their round three game against rivals Berwick.
Last season, a 1-1 draw at home was the catalyst in derailing Berwick’s title challenge, so the stakes were high for this encounter.
Berwick started the better of the two teams, with energy and attack down their left hand side resulting in an early corner.
The Valley defence fell asleep as Berwick took it short, dribbling to the edge of the area and rocketing a shot into the top right corner 3 minutes in to open the scoring.
Valley rallied together, and battled out the next 15 minutes as a team to try and get back on level terms.
The game closed up a little, with Berwick still looking the more likely to score but Valley created a few problems for their opposition too.
Splendid tackles and a marauding run from Oscar Lyons reminded the home team that Valley meant business, but an unfortunate error at the back lead to a missed header, and Berwick got a tap in for their second 24 minutes in.
It was always going to be a big effort to go away to the team with the most resources in the competition, and the disparity was evident to see between the two starting 11s.
Despite that, Valley dug deep and tried to play our way.
Right back Joel Ryan was tasked with keeping Berwick’s Liam Wolstenholme at bay, and it’s this effort that earned him the Player of the Game, with Ryan’s first foul coming in the 70th minute against and NPL quality player.
This sort of grit was what got one back for Valley before half time.
A free kick from Atanasov floated into the box from far out, with several Valley players and opposition players contesting, but ultimately unable to stop it soaring straight in.
Berwick capitalised on some sloppy defending once again to make it 3-1 at half time.
The second half saw the rain pour down, and it changed the game in Valley’s favour.
The youngsters up front in the form of George Lyons, Gus Vukman and Alex Ronald’s relieved the experienced Tomlinson and Rinke of their role to try and combat the Berwick midfield, and Valley went for it.
The game turned into an open encounter, with chances at either end.
Some great defending from Serci, Ryan and Abela kept Berwick at bay, but it was keeper Aden Kerridge who kept his side in the contest with several last grasp saves.
The final goal of the game came from a Valley free kick, headed on by Kinsella to Baya Litchfield at the back post, whose volley found the head of Vukman and set up a grandstand finish.
It was just too little too late, and the game ended 3-2 to the hosts.
On a day where neither team had access to the changing rooms, it was a much improved Valley performance, who lost to the same opposition by over 12 goals last season
The Yarra Valley Thirds got their first point of the season in a hard-fought 4-4 draw with Vic Harbour.
After conceding first, the ‘Thunderthirds’ scored three goals in quick succession, as young Rei Muramatsu put away his first senior goal for the club before player-coach Thomas Langmaid added 2 more goals through a penalty and a trademark free kick.
With a late goal to the opposition making the score 3-2 at half-time, the Thirds knew they would need to come out hard to begin the second half, and they did exactly that as Nicolas Bingham took advantage of a defensive error and calmly slotted it past the keeper to make it 4-2, although the two-goal margin didn’t last long as Vic Harbour rebounded immediately to score their third after a fortuitous bounce.
Sadly, with only one sub for the second half, the Thirds ran out of legs and an equaliser 15 minutes from full-time meant that they could only settle for a point.
Next week, all Junior, Women’s and Men’s team play at the Millgrove Recreation Reserve, come on down to support.
Juniors from 9am.
Seniors from 1pm and 3pm.
