By Rory Flanagan (@Rory_Flanagan)

Dandenong Thunder's impenetrable home record was ended by a resilient Werribee City side on Sunday night.

The visitors weathered 60 minutes of pressure before storming home in the final half an hour to stun the hosts in their 3-0 win.

Steven Cudrig, Josh Groenewald and Bobby Vidanoski were on the scoresheet after Dandenong's frustrating spell of profligacy.

Always backed by the vocal home crowd, Thunder raced out of the blocks and dominated the opening exchanges.

Matt Millar had the first chance, blazing high and wide after some creative build-up play by fellow youngsters Kieran Dover and Ilir Pali.

Due to the right-hand side being constantly overloaded, Dandy's attacking fluency came down the left via Kris Kioussis and the aforementioned Pali on numerous occasions.  

The two combined superbly before Kioussis struck a tame effort on his weaker right foot as Tommy Dunn remained largely untroubled in the Werribee goal.

The attacking quintet of Schroen, Kioussis, Millar, Dover and Pali - average age of 18 and a half - was particularly impressive, combining to set up Dover, whose eventual shot resembled something of a rugby conversion.

Without doubt, the chance of the half fell to Schroen. Millar typically barged his way past four players before running the ball into the path of his teammate who feebly shot into the hands of Dunn from just six yards out.

On the stroke of halftime, Groenewald could have pinched the lead for Werribee with an instinctive turn and volley that fizzed past the upright.

Nonetheless, Nino Ragusa's men entered the break feeling well and truly confident of a result following Dandenong's host of spurned opportunities.

The ascendancy remained with the home side in the early period of the second half, but the quality of final delivery was lacking and Werribee’s confidence grew as it remained patient and organised.

Burly centre-back Cudrig's growing reputation as a set-piece nuisance proved to be the end of Dandenong's run of momentum, and string of clean sheets at home with a superb downward header from Matt Cundari's 69th-minute corner.

Barely five minutes later the advantage was doubled when Groenewald steered in a cross from the impressive Ryan Filipovic.

Vidanoski put the icing on the cake for the visitors, pouncing on a goalmouth scramble and blasting into the net from close range.

Nino Ragusa praised his young charges after the game.

"The boys were fantastic and I think there's more to come...you can’t come here and rely on one or two players. You have to come to these places and really have a good team game or else you’re just going to get slaughtered,” Ragusa said.

Ragusa reiterated the importance of set pieces.

"Set pieces are 30 per cent of goals scored in our sport globally so I try to hit that mark. We’re not really still super quality (sic.) possession-wise in this league yet so we try to make the most of everything we’ve got."

Thunder coach Dean Hennessy was left pondering a frustrating defeat.

"This is the very first time tonight we’ve come in as favourites and we haven’t dealt with it. I’m not complaining about the first half, the first half was very good, we should’ve come in the lead but we didn’t and it was one that was going to come back and bite us and it certainly bit us,” Hennessey said.

Hennessy also lamented the absence of his captain, Alan Mulcahy.

"We’ve got to back up next week against Ballarat and then two more games against South Melbourne. Hopefully we’ll get Mullers (Mulcahy) back and he’s a big influence in the team, there’s no doubt we did miss him tonight."

MATCH DETAILS

Dandenong Thunder 0 lost to Werribee City 3 (Cudrig 69', Groenewald 75', Vidanoski 80') at George Andrews Reserve [HT: 0-0]

Dandenong Thunder: Frazer SIDDALL, Brendan ELMAZOVSKI, David KING, Ramazan TAVSANCIOGLU, Kris KIOUSSIS, Alan KEARNEY (C), Matt MILLAR (Jarryd BARNES 81'), Kieran DOVER (Jake NAKIC 63'), Ilir PALI, Marcus SCHROEN, Feston AZIZI (Brendan CRAIG 74').

Unused subs: Zaim ZENELI, Ryan BURNS

Cards: None

Werribee City: Tommy DUNN, Damir MARUSIC (Nemanja GOVDERICA 59'), Ivica PRAIZ, Steven CUDRIG, Bobby VIDANOSKI, Ryan FILIPOVIC, Milan SAVIC (C), Robbie NAUMOVSKI, Anthony RAGUSA (Simon ZAPPIA 64'), Matt CUNDARI (Ray MARKLEY 81), Josh GROENEWALD.

Unused subs: Rodrick YOUSEF, Daniel SWEENEY

Cards: None

Image credit: Charlie Lombardo