By Tervel Atanasov
Senior Men’s:
On a hot day at Millgrove Recreational Reserve, the Yarra Valley men’s team took to the pitch for the first home game of the season against Doncaster Rovers.
Having lost to their opponents in both fixtures last year, the Valley boys had a point to prove, especially given their unlucky result last week too.
The first half started with Valley on top of the game, controlling possession and having a number on shots on goal.
The midfield duo of Eamonn Kinsella and Oscar Lyons, two household Valley names, were owning the middle of the park and the Doncaster midfield couldn’t find an answer.
1-0 came along in the 28th minute, with a very fortuitous long range effort from Kinsella taking a big bounce over the opposition keeper and finding its way into the back of the net.
But it was a deserved lead, and it felt like only a matter of time before more goals followed.
A further spell of dominance from Yarra Valley failed to turn into more goals however, with Doncaster playing very direct and seeing a few threatening counter attacks that were well dealt with by the returning Captain Kaine Abela in at CB.
Half time remained 1-0.
The second half continued in the same fashion, with the Millgrove pitch not being kind to the visitors as the home team continued maintaining a high intensity in hot conditions.
The timely substitutions of Gus Vukman and George Lyons came at the perfect moment, keeping fresh legs up front and that’s what allowed us to score the second.
Oscar Lyons got on the end of a Vukman cross, with a comfortable tap in at the back post to make it 2-0.
Vukman had the chance to seal the deal with a perfectly crafted Yarra Valley move, starting from goalkeeper Kerridge and seeing 10 passes come together before Vukman narrowly missed all alone through on goal. The score line was complete when Kinsella chased a lost cause over the top from Ryan, which he held up and played off nearly to Jack Eyssens on the edge of the area for his first well deserved goal of the season, rifled into the far bottom corner.
3-0 on the day and it could have been more, a good result from the Valley boys who could be heard singing their song loudly afterwards.
Senior Men’s Reserves:
The Yarra Valley reserves had their first home game of the season at the picturesque Millgrove reserve.
On the back of their first win of the season, the reserves took a lot of confidence into the game against Doncaster.
Once again, ten minutes into the game and it’s all valley football.
Crossed coming in from Hugo Convalves and Josh Allender creating plenty of opportunities for Jack Rinke, Gus Vukman and Henry Lawrence to get into the receiving end to score.
Unfortunately none of those chances could be converted, and with a lapse in concentration Doncaster scored back to back goals.
Henry going down with an injury left us down a sub on the bench going into halftime and with the scorching heat it proved a turning point.
The second half started much like last week and the first half: total valley football.
The defence of Francis De Varga, skipper James Wolfe, Josh Willemsen and Hugo Concalves held their own with Doncaster having no chances to further their lead in the game and allowing the Lyons family in George and Isi to take control in the midfield to allow Paul Healey and young Olly to get some balls into the box for striker Ben James.
Yet again, we just couldn’t convert our chances and the scoreline read 2-0 at the end.
A hard fought and hot game with the reserves unlucky to not walk away with a point.
All focus now shifts to the first game back after the Easter break.
