By David Manuca (@davidmanuca)

Green Gully has picked up its first victory since Round 1 after coming from behind to down Goulburn Valley Suns 2-1.

Craig Carley opened the scoring early for the Suns before Brent Fisher put Gully back on level terms midway through the first half.

Neither side could be separated heading in to the final 10 minutes of the game until second-half substitute Osagie Ederaro pounced on a mistake in defence from the Suns to seal the three points.

Green Gully head coach Aaron Symons praised his side’s defensive effort after conceding 14 goals in their three previous league games.

“Overall it was collectively a very good defensive performance,” Symons said.

“That was stemming on the back of the Bentleigh game. Although the scoreline didn’t look good the previous week, we did improve.

“I think defensively we were actually a lot more compact and structured and we worked hard during the week for this.

“I felt we had the better of the chances. Both teams had chances but I felt as though we were unlucky not to put them away earlier.”

It took just four minutes for the Suns to take the lead, with a slip-up in defence from Rodrigo Vargas gifting the ball to Carley who made no mistake and fired a bullet past Kieran Gonzalez in the Green Gully goal.

Carley almost had a second five minutes later when he was played in by Suns left-back Joshua Glover, but the forward’s cheeky lobbed attempt was smothered by Gonzalez.

Gully’s first real attempt on goal came after 17 minutes, with Andy Vargas knocking the ball down to Fisher who hit it first time, but his strike was pushed away for a corner by Suns goalkeeper Phillip Petrovski.

The pressure was being put on by Gully and just a few minutes later they had their equaliser. Jeffrey Fleming was set up by Andy Vargas, with the ball falling to Fisher who hit it low past Petrovski.

The chances were few and far between for both sides in the rest of the first half, but Carley and Ratip Cileli both had shots from outside the box fizzle just over the crossbar.

In the second half it was a completely different story, with Green Gully dominating the play and looking like the only side likely to score.
The chances began to flow when Symons replaced Fleming with Jason Hayne.

Just a few minutes later, Fisher had a golden chance to put Gully ahead after some great work by Hayne down the right-hand side but he put his shot over the crossbar.

Chance after chance went begging for the Cavaliers, before Symons made the decision to introduce Ederaro into the match.

The move almost paid immediate dividends when Ederaro whipped in a ball for Hayne, who blasted his shot over the goal.

Just moments after an indirect free-kick was awarded to Gully, another error from Petrovski turned into a scramble in the box with Mathew Sanders setting up Ederaro, who curled an effort in to the far post to give Green Gully a deserved lead.

There were plenty of nerves as Gully attempted to hold on and a late Kristian Sarkies free-kick in a dangerous position forced many Gully fans to look away.

The Suns almost nicked a point right at the death, with Sarkies’ free-kick falling to Daniel Chaabani who could only direct his header on to the post.

In the end it was a spirited performance from the bottom-of-the-table Suns, but the class and experience of Green Gully proved to be just too much for them to handle.

MATCH DETAILS

Green Gully 2 (Fisher 20’, Ederaro 82’) defeated Goulburn Valley Suns 1 (Carley 4’) at Green Gully Reserve.

Green Gully: 1. Kieran GONZALEZ (GK), 2.Daniel JONES, 5. Rodrigo VARGAS, 7. Jeffrey FLEMING (8. Jason HAYNE 55’), 9. Brent FISHER, 10. Ratip CILELI (20. Osagie EDERARO 64’), 12. Mathew SANDERS, 16. Sean HARDING, 17. Andy VARGAS (11. Jem BERKANT 81’) 19. Ardian VUNIQI, 21. Brian VANEGA.

Unused subs: 18. Cameron DAVIS, 23. Dilen IBRAHIM.

Yellow cards: Cileli 26’, Harding 90+2’

Red cards: Nil

Goulburn Valley Suns: 1. Phillip PETROVSKI (GK), 2. Cody SELLWOOD, 3. Josh GLOVER (14. Zackery PARASKEVAS 45’), 4. Naum SEKULOVSKI, 5. Nick KALAFATIS, 16. Fahed ALGHAZALY, 7. Ben CLARKE, 8. Daniel CHAABANI, 9. Craig CARLEY (13. Hernan ESPINDOLA 76’), 10. Kristian SARKIES, 11. Stipo ANDRIJASEVIC.

Unused subs: 18. Ridvan SAGLAM, 6. Abdullah WAHIDI, Jake KEATING.

Yellow cards: Chaabani 88’

Red cards: Nil

Image credit: Graeme Furlong