By David Manuca (@davidmanuca)

A dominant first-half performance from Green Gully saw it thrash Northcote City 6-2 and claim its third successive victory at Green Gully Reserve on Saturday afternoon

Gully scored five first-half goals, including a hat-trick by Osagie Ederaro, as they went on to claim the three points in the mid-table clash.

The home side took the lead after just two minutes when Jem Berkant hit a shot from outside the box and it looped over Northcote City goalkeeper Chris Theodoridis.

It could have been 2-0 a few minutes later when Sean Harding’s cut-back found Andy Vargas in the box, but his placed shot was well saved by Theodoridis.

Northcote found itself level on 12 minutes after its first attack of the game when Tremayne Sadler’s low cross was not dealt with by Rodrigo Vargas, with Liam Wooding pouncing on the error.

But it wasn’t long until Green Gully was back in the lead when Andy Vargas was played through, with his cut-back finding Ederaro to put it home.

Just five minutes later an error by Jonathan Bounas gifted the ball to Mathew Sanders, who passed it off to Ederaro for his second.

From the resulting kick-off another Northcote error gave Gully an opportunity on goal with Sanders this time slotting a one-on-one.

The next chance of the game fell to James Kalifatidis, with some great link-up play with between he and Wooding resulting in a shot hit straight at Gully goalkeeper Kieran Gonzalez.

But a minute later Green Gully scored their fifth of the half, with Ederaro grabbing his hat-trick after Sanders set him up nicely.

Northcote lifted its intensity in the second half and found an early goal through Wooding again, after he smashed home a rebound from a corner.

The visitors could have reduced the deficit to two goals when Wade Dekker headed a ball over the bar from Kristian Konstantinidis.

Green Gully set out to close off the game late on and scored a sixth through Sanders when he finished a great move by Ederaro.

Sanders had the chance to score a hat-trick in injury time when Adrian Chiappetta gave away a spot-kick but his low-hit penalty was saved by Theodoridis.

Green Gully coach Bob Stojevski was pleased with his side’s performance but said there’s still room for improvement.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Stojcevski said.

 “I think we’re still not there yet but at least we’re starting to combine again as a team.

“Our key is our technical ability, as you can see we conceded from a corner, but at least the players are starting to believe in themselves and their passing ability and the link-up play just really destroyed them in the first-half.

“It was really pleasing to see.”

Northcote City coach Goran Lozanovski lamented his side’s poor errors.

“It was an early Christmas for Green Gully that’s for sure,” Lozanovski said.

“Very disappointing, schoolboy errors we are making and we are getting punished for them.

“When you do mistakes like that against a team like Green Gully they are very experienced and you’re going to get hurt. We’ll learn from this.”

MATCH DETAILS

Green Gully 6 (Berkant 2’, Ederaro 18’, 23’, 35’, Sanders 24’, 85’) defeated Northcote City 2 (Wooding 12’, 56’) at Green Gully Reserve [HT: 5-1]

Green Gully: 1. Kieran GONZALEZ (GK), 2. Daniel JONES, 4. Mitch BISSINGER, 5. Rodrigo VARGAS, 7. Jeffrey FLEMING, 10. Ratip CILELI (9. Brent FISHER 89’), 11. Jem BERKANT (8. Jason HAYNE 73’), 12. Mathew SANDERS, 16. Sean HARDING, 17. Andy VARGAS (21. Brian VANEGA 86’), 20. Osagie EDERARO.

Unused substitutes: 23. Dilen IBRAHIM, 18. Matthew REID.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Northcote City: 22. Chris THEODORIDIS (GK), 23. Jonathan BOUNAS (14. Michael CATALANO 70’), 7. Jonathan MUNOZ, 8. James KALIFATIDIS, 3. Tremayne SADLER, 4. Kristian KONSTANTINIDIS (21. Ersin KAYA 90’), 16. Greg LOMBARDO, 9. Trent RIXON, 2. Adrian CHIAPPETTA, 10. Marino GASPARIS (15. Wade DEKKER 46’), 11. Liam WOODING.

Unused substitutes: 1. Luke GAVALAS, 19. Jacob ELIOPOULOS.

Yellow cards: Lombardo 90+3’

Red cards: Nil

Image credit: Jason Heidrich Photography