By Rory Flanagan (@Rory_Flanagan)

Dandenong Thunder returned to winning ways on home turf with a 3-1 victory over the Ballarat Red Devils on Saturday night.

An energetic but dour game was brought to life by Matt Millar off the bench in the second half, suppling Jake Nakic's two identical goals after David King's opener was cancelled out by Danny O'Donnell.

Off the back of a barnstorming performance against Green Gully, Dom Swinton intriguingly matched up on Kris Kioussis, a left-back who likes to overlap.

It was Kioussis who sent over the cross for the first chance of the match; an opportunistic backheel from Marcus Schroen to force Jordan Franken into his first save of the night.

Feston Azizi has enjoyed starting berths in recent weeks, and should have done better when he headed a cross from the right over the bar.

The first half was frantic, leading to rushed decision-making and some poor choices as coaches Dean Hennessy and James Robinson were left frustrated along with the uncharacteristically small home crowd.

Perry Muir's whistle for halftime was music to the ears of many, shortly after Alan Mulcahy and Swinton went close with curling efforts from distance.

The second period began brightly for the visitors, but after a stop in play due to injury to Patrick Karras, Dane Milovanovic wasted his free-kick from 20 yards.

Mulcahy's return from injury provided a spark in midfield for Dandy, though the skipper perhaps still lacked some match awareness after charging into the box and failing to pull the trigger.

The frustration was growing with some home supporters shouting 'same as last week' in reference to Dandenong's inability to finish chances that proved costly in the 3-0 defeat to Werribee City.

Kioussis was drawing the ire of his bench, repeatedly attempting and failing with long cross-field switches of play.

His delivery from corners was spot on though, whipping a delightful corner onto the diving head of King at the back post, who buried his first goal for Thunder.

The lead was short-lived when a failure to clear the ball resulted in O'Donnell volleying an equaliser, sending the Red Devils bench into a frenzy.

Step forth Millar. The inaugural Winning Edge Rising Star of the Month had been kept in cotton wool for Dandenong's midweek Dockerty Cup tie, but delivered a devastating 30-minute salvo of running dribbling down the left.

He left the tiring Daniel Tinker for dead before delivering a low cross to the back post where Jake Nakic steered home despite suspicions of offside.

Millar repeated the dose 10 minutes later, again tearing down the left and firing across to Nakic, who tapped in his second.

Nakic could have had a hat-trick if not for a brilliant Franken save, rushing out to meet the tall forward and turn the ball away.

Trying to find positives post-game, James Robinson was proud of young James King.

"A 15-year-old boy's made his debut and that’s a fantastic positive from that (game). The young boy's come out and demanded the ball, it's what you want,” Robinson said.

Robinson also praised the opposition's ability to run with the ball.

"Our spirits were high and we knew we had to do certain things to be able to counteract them and what their strengths were. Obviously their strengths were a bit too good today."

Dean Hennessey was please to bounce back, but had one eye firmly on the upcoming Dockerty Cup clash with runaway leader South Melbourne.

"They’re scoring freely, they’ve not got beat so they’ve got a winning habit there so that’s a great habit to have but from our point of view, we go in with confidence now,” Hennessey said.

“They’ve got two great strikers (Lujic and Reed) who are scoring regularly so we’re going to have to deal with that first and they’ve also got a lot of supply. We’ll have a defensive mindset not to give too much early but we’ll try to cause a threat going the other way as well."

MATCH DETAILS

Dandenong Thunder 3 (King 60' Nakic 70, 79') defeated Ballarat Red Devils 1 (O'Donnell 67') at George Andrews Reserve [HT: 0-0]

Dandenong Thunder: Zaim Zeneli, Brendan Elmazovski, Rama Tavsancioglu, David King, Kris Kioussis, Alan Kearney, Alan Mulcahy, Ilir Pali (Matt Millar 57'), Feston Azizi (Jarryd Barnes 71'), Marcus Schroen (Ryan Burns 81') Jake Nakic.

Unused subs: Frazer Siddall, Kieran Dover

Yellow cards: None

Red cards: None

Ballarat Red Devils: Jordan Franken, Charlie King, Tristan Romein, Danny O'Donnell, Daniel Tinker, Dom Swinton (Harley Bosher 80'), Liam Harding, Michael Trigger (James King 67'), Patrick Karras (Daniel Firth 49'), Simon Murphy, Dane Milovanovic.

Unused subs: Aaron Romein, Jai Cartledge

Yellow Cards: None