By Matthew McNamara

Oakleigh Cannons opened its NPL account with a 1-0 victory over a brave Goulburn Valley Suns at McEwan Reserve on Saturday night.

New Oakleigh signing Dean Piemonte continued where he left off last season, netting the game’s only goal inside the first four minutes.

Many expected the game to be a one-sided affair with the Suns only beginning training some four weeks earlier, but inaugural Suns coach Melvyn Wilkes’ side did the largely partisan crowd proud with a solid performance.

The home fans were stunned early when Suns captain Nick Kalafatis inexplicably turned the ball over in his own penalty area. Nate Foster was quick to snatch the ball and lay it off for Piemonte, who made no mistake in slotting home past Suns custodian Phil Petrovski.

The Suns’ best chance of the first half came through a Kristian Sarkies free kick.

Andreas Govas fouled Hernan Espindola just outside the area, but the resulting set piece from former A-League midfielder Sarkies sailed narrowly wide.

Rudy Saglam, who had only signed with the Suns on Friday morning, was introduced by Wilkes at halftime, and made a resounding impact early.

Sitting in front of the back four, Saglam found plenty of time on the ball and created the best opportunity of the match for the Suns.

His neat ball through to Englishman Craig Carley saw the striker through one-on-one with John Honos in the Oakleigh goal, but Honos denied the marksman.

As the Suns started pushing numbers forward, Oakleigh found gaps in the attacking third and almost put the game beyond doubt late as Goran Zoric and then Dusan Bosnjak were both expertly denied by Melbourne Heart National Youth League keeper Petrovski.

Suns coach Melvyn Wilkes was left wondering what might have been.

“I’m disappointed in all honesty as a little mistake in the first 10 minutes has really cost us... but the lads have done really well, and the stuff that we worked on in training during the week based on what we knew about Oakleigh, I thought we executed that really well today,” Wilkes said.

When pressed about the impact of Saglam in the second half, Wilkes said, “Rudy will give you a bit more quality on the ball. He’s a player I can work with and utilise to be effective within our whole system”.

The Oakleigh camp was unavailable for comment.

MATCH DETAILS

FT: Goulburn Valley Suns 0 lost to Oakleigh Cannons 1 (Piemonte 4’) (HT: 0-1)

Goulburn Valley Suns: Phil Petrovski (GK), Zac Paraskevas, Naum Sekulovski, Joshua Glover, Nick Kalafatis, Fahed Alghazaly (Rudi Saglam 46’), Ben Clarke, Hernan Espindola (Cody Sellwood 90’), Craig Carley, Kristian Sarkies, Stipo Andrijasevic

Unused Subs: Thomas Langman, Riley Hamilton, Jake Keating

Yellow Cards: Carley (25’), Kalafatis (64’), Clarke (74’), Paraskevas (79’)

Red Cards: Nil

Oakleigh Cannons: John Honos (GK), Aron Wilford, Dominic D’Angelo, Bonel Obradovic, Dean Piemonte (Jordan Lowdon 50’), Evan Christodoulou, Goran Zoric, Andreas Govas, Dusan Bosnjak, Nate Foster (Ian Kamau 66’), Thomas Lakic,

Unused Subs: Evan Kraloglou, George Krommidas, Laurent Coralie

Yellow Cards: Obradovic (22’), Govas (49’), Bosnjak (85’), Christodoulou (92’)

Red Cards: Nil