By Brad Hutchings (@BradHutchings_)

Werribee City has claimed its first victory of the season with a 2-1 comeback win over Hume City at Galvin Park on Sunday afternoon.

The visitors took an early lead after 25 minutes with a fine strike by Aaron Turner before Werribee regrouped thanks to goals from Josh Groenewald and Steven Cudrig to secure the victory.

Hume City enjoyed the opening stages of the encounter as it dominated early. Despite the early wave of passion, the visitors couldn’t make it count as it failed to threaten the Werribee City goal.

An early sighter fell to Hume striker Nick Marinos who could only send his headed shot wide after nine minutes.

Hume City’s lead in possession was reflected on the scoreboard after 25 minutes as Aaron Turner produced a fine strike to beat Werribee ‘keeper Tommy Dunn to give the away side the early advantage. Turner finished off a nice passage of passing from Hume to give it a much deserved lead.

If Hume City had any thoughts of going on to extend its lead after that, Werribee City had different intentions as it levelled the scores just two minutes later with a headed goal to Groenewald.

The old adage that you are most susceptible to concede straight after you score could not have been any truer as Groenewald was left unattended on the far post to head home the equaliser.

The goal appeared to give Werribee some much needed confidence as it looked the more likely to score in the remaining minutes of the half.

The second half was a battle of attrition with both sides appearing to struggle in the mid-afternoon heat.

Hume skipper Nick Hegarty had a rare second-half sight on goal as he ambitiously attempted to chip Dunn from well outside the box that didn’t quite go to plan in the 72nd minute.

With the game seemingly approaching a stalemate, Werribee City made the most of a corner routine with Steven Cudrig heading the home side in front on 77 minutes.

Cudrig rose well in a congested penalty area to meet the corner and bag the elusive goal which ultimately gave Werribee its first win of the season.

Hume tried hard after that to find an equaliser but couldn’t penetrate the brick wall that was the Werribee City defence.

Werribee City manager Nino Ragusa was pleased with his side’s performance.

“Always happy with a win, always. It was a really good, really, really good team performance out there. We have been trying to lift our game in terms of team structure in getting ourselves much more competitive. I think in the last two weeks we have found it. It’s not quality yet,” Ragusa said.

“They (Werribee players) got a bit of belief themselves. In this league every game is big. There is no easy game in this league.”

Hume manager Louie Acevski was understandably disappointed on how the afternoon panned out for his side.

“Every game you lose is disappointing. Overall I don’t think we deserved to win at all. I think they wanted it more than us. Credit to Werribee,” Acevski said.

“You never bank on three points.  You bank on your team giving 100 per cent and trying to win the game, we weren’t here today.  We will regroup again and go back to training tomorrow and get ready for Dandenong on Saturday”

Match Details

FT: Werribee City 2 (Josh Groenewald 27’, Steven Cudrig 77’) defeated Hume City 1 (Aaron Turner 25’) at Galvin Park [HT:1-1]

Werribee City: Tommy DUNN (GK), Oliver ROWLAND, Simon SYMEOY, Ryan FILIPOVIC, Milan SAVIC (C), Bobby VIDANOSKI (Anthony RAGUSA 81’), Josh GROENEWALD (Zois GALANOPOULOS 60’), Rob NAUMOVSKI (Damir MARUSIC 64’), Ray MARKLEY, Ivica PRAIZ, Steven CUDRIG

Unused subs: Nemanja GOVEDARICA

Yellow Card: Milan Savic (6’)

Red Cards: None

Hume City: Chris OLDFIELD (GK), Izzy ERDOGAN, Petar FRANJIC, Joseph FRANJIC, Jose GUERRERO, Nick MARINOS (Devon BONNE 58’), Richie CARDOZO, Shane REXHEPI, John STOJCEVSKI (Matt HENNESSEY 55’), Aaron TURNER (Kliment TASESKI 70’), Nick HEGARTY(C)

Unused subs: Ali TURGUT, Evan ALEXANDROW-RIDLEY (GK)

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Pictured: Hume City captain Nik Hegarty is put under pressure (image credit: Charlie Lombardo)