By Matthew McNamara

Hume City has returned to winning ways after a 2-0 victory over the struggling Melbourne Knights.

Hume inflicted the Knights’ fifth consecutive loss, with second-half goals from Baki Efe and Nick Hegarty securing the three points.
 
Both sides were missing plenty of players through injury and with squad depth likely to be tested, the Knights suffered an immediate setback in the opening three minutes when Rodrigo Covarrubias went down with a nasty knee injury. 

Anthony Duzel, who had already played 45 minutes in the U20 fixture prior to kick-off, was forced onto the field early.
 
The Knights had plenty of chances during the opening period.  Shayan Alinejad looked lively down the right-hand side, but was often well contained by Hume’s stand-in full-back Aaron Turner.
 
The game however opened up in the second period.  Hume captain Hegarty looked a man possessed, often shooting from distance yet Knights custodian Chris May always seemed up for the challenge, producing some magnificent saves to deny the Englishman.
 
Not to be outdone, Hume ‘keeper Chris Oldfield was soon to be called into action after Knights captain Ben Surey unleashed an absolute pile driver of a strike, but Oldfield held onto the strike with ease.
 
As the game wore on the Knights seemed the likely team to score - Daniel Visevic and Tomislav Uskok both tested Oldfield - before Melbourne Victory youth team midfielder Johnny Buceto forced a great save out of May in the Knights goal.
 
But with only 20 minutes remaining, it was teenage sensation Efe who popped up to put the home side in the lead. 

After the initial corner was poorly cleared, Hegarty lofted in a delightful ball to the back post which Efe nodded home to give Hume a 1-0 lead.
 
Moments later the advantage was doubled when Hegarty hammered a speculative 30-yard drive with a quarter of an hour to go. 

The ball flew into the back of the net, though May should have done better to keep it out.
 
With limited substitutes available to him, Knights coach Andrew Marth turned to centre-back Milan Batur to play as a striker but it was a case of too little too late as the visitors slumped to their fifth-straight loss.
 
Hume City Manager Louie Acevski was pleased with his side’s performance.

“Finally we put away our chances today.  To be honest, we didn’t create as many chances as we have in previous games but the difference was we finally took them today,” Acevski said.

“Credit to all of the boys.  They have worked so hard on the training ground for the past few weeks to try and turn this around and today it all came together.”
 
The Knights were unavailable for comment.
 
Match Details

Hume City 2 (Efe 70’, Hegarty 75’) defeated Melbourne Knights 0 at Broadmeadows Valley Park [HT: 0-0]

Hume City: Chris Oldfield (GK), Baki Efe, Petar Franjic, Shane Rexhepi, Aaron Turner, Joseph Franjic, Kliment Taseski, Nick Hegarty, Johnny Buceto, Jose Guerrero (Nikos Jackson-Tserexidis 61’), Nick Marinos (Devon Bonne 73’)

Unused Subs: Matthew Hennessey, Ali Turgut, Evan Alexandrow-Ridley (GK)

Yellow Cards: Rexhepi (70’)

Red Cards: None

Melbourne Knights: Chris May (GK), Anthony Colosimo, Antun Kovacic (Ivan Grgic 88’), Milan Batur, Ben Surey, James McGarry, Rodrigo Covarrubias (Anthony Duzel 5’), Nikola Srbinovski, Daniel Visevic, Shayan Alinejad (Joseph Monek 78’), Tomislav Uskok                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Unused Sub: Michael O’Farrell

Yellow Cards: Uskok (17’)

Red Cards: None