By Matthew McNamara

A stunning start followed by a flurry of late goals has seen Heidelberg United make ground on ladder leader South Melbourne as it disposed of Dandenong Thunder 5-2 at George Andrews Reserve on Saturday evening.

Jack Petrie opened the scoring inside 90 seconds, before Kaine Sheppard netted twice before the break to give the visitors a comfortable 3-0 lead into the sheds.

Thunder coach Dean Hennessey must have delivered a stern team talk as his side soon slotted home twice to close the gap to a solitary goal.

Heidelberg was clearly intent on going home with three points however, and made sure of the win when Dean Heffernan and Peter Kratky both scored late on.

The dream start for Heidelberg saw Petrie smash home from long range inside the first two minutes.

Moments later the Heidelberg travelling fans were rewarded again when Sheppard unleashed a vicious strike and doubled the visitors’ lead.

Things went from bad to worse for Dandenong when Marcus Schroen was stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious knee injury after a bone jarring tackle with Paul Miller.  

With only 24 minutes on the clock Dandenong now had a mountain to climb. Petrie travelled with the ball out wide on the right before expertly linking up with Sheppard, who slotted home past Zaim Zeneli.

The battle on the pitch soon saw it shift to the dugouts as both coaches turned to their substitutes to enhance their side’s hopes.

Hennessey reacted swiftly and introduced Afghani International Safa Faisal into the fray, while Heidelberg coach George Katsakis replaced Andrew Cartanos with Petr Kratky at the interval as his side moved to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation.

With Heidelberg still leading 3-0, the game was finely balanced in the second period until the home side struck.
Faisal hammered into the roof of the net to give his side hope, much to the dismay of the Heidelberg coaching staff who felt the Thunder star was in an offside position.

Within minutes it was 3-2 as Jarryd Barnes headed into the top corner and the panic button had well and truly been pushed on the Heidelberg bench.

Dandenong continued its resurgence until a brain fade in the defensive third allowed Dan Heffernan to effectively end the contest as his 84th-minute strike sent the visitors up 4-2.  

Thunder introduced local youngster Ilir Pali late on but it was in vein as Heidelberg sealed the victory with a goal of the season contender from Kratky.

Katsakis was relieved his sidehung on.

"The panic button hit. But I said to the boys at halftime that I've been in this situation before at 3-0 and I started to get glimpses of it,” Katsakis said.

“I've got to give credit to the boys that did come on as we have been a bit light with numbers.

“But when you possess people like Heffernan and Sheppard it can take only a moment of class to win it for you.”

Hennessey was upbeat about his team’s second-half effort.

"The one thing I'm really proud about with this team is that we still work hard and see the game out and never give in,” Hennessey said.

“We prepared really well for the game and we were really confident that we could get a result here today.”

Match Details

Dandenong Thunder 2 (Faisal 69', Barnes 72') lost to Heidelberg United 5 (Petrie 1', Sheppard 7', 24', Heffernan 83', Kratky 90')

Dandenong Thunder: Zaim Zeneli, Brendan Elmazovski (Ilir Pali 86'), Ramazan Tavsancioglu, Kristopher Kioussis, Alan Kearney, Feston Azizi (Safa Faisal 37'), Kieran Dover, Marcus Schroen (Alan Mulcahy 14'), Jarryd Barnes, Brendon Craig

Unused subs: Frazer Siddall, Anthony Giannopoulos

Yellow cards: Mulcahy 44', Elmazovski 74'

Red cards: Nil

Heidelberg United: Ryan Norval, Jakob Williams, Steven Pace, Jordan Wilkes, Les Doumbalis, Paul Miller, Jack Petrie, Kosta Kanakaris (Harris Stamboulidis 79'), Andrew Cartanos (Petr Kratky 46'), Dan Heffernan, Kaine Sheppard (James Goulopoulos 65')

Unused sub: Griffin McMaster

Yellow cards: Miller 36', Williams 50', Pace 74', Norval 76'

Red cards: Nil