By Kristian Stojanov (@kikocez)

Richmond made it six wins from its past seven matches with a 3-0 victory over Springvale White Eagles in windy conditions at White Eagles Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Goals to Hamlet Armenian and a brace from captain Tom Cahill proved the difference, as Richmond went on to dominate proceedings.

Richmond began strongly and threatened to score after pressing Springvale high into its own half.

The first chance arrived after seven minutes when Richmond midfielder Alistair Quinn lobbed the ball onto the roof of the net, much to the delight of Springvale ‘keeper Anthony Casset who watched it float just over.

Richmond continued to dominate the match and had two glorious chances to take the lead in the space of a minute when shots from Vincent Bontemps and Cahill sailed just over the bar.

An even better chance arrived in the 23rd minute when a corner from the right-hand side found an unmarked Bontemps, who smashed his header off the woodwork.

Richmond’s dominance paid off with three minutes remaining in the first period when a lofted through ball from Cahill found Armenian, who chested the ball down and volleyed home to hand Richmond a 1-0 lead.

Right on the stroke of halftime however, Richmond thought it had doubled its lead when a through ball from Gideon Sweet found Cahill who slotted the ball home into an empty net, only to be adjudged offside by the assistant referee.

Richmond came out in the second half as it started the first and continued to dominate possession.

Eight minutes into the second half, an off-the-ball incident - Springvale’s Vojislav Milojevic kicked Richmond’s Liam Flynn - was missed by the referee and his assistant and resulted in Milojevic not being sent off, much to the frustration of the Richmond bench and its travelling spectators.

With 12 minutes remaining, Cahill got his much-deserved goal when he took on his marker and slotted the ball underneath the outstretching Casset to make it 2-0.

Just a minute later Cahill almost had his second, but his 30-yard effort was brilliantly saved by Casset.

Cahill secured his brace when a blunder from ‘keeper Casset was cleared off the line by Jovanovic, only for the resulting corner delivered from Purcell to find an unmarked Cahill to header the ball home to secure all three points for the visitors.

Despite the win, Richmond coach Rick Mensink considered his side’s performance as substandard, and praised his opposition for a tough encounter.

“Before the game we would take a 3-0 result, but our movement was relatively poor. We dominated the game in sense but not with quality football. We dominated with our shape and our pressure,” Mensink said.

Mensink noted the importance of taking all three points away home despite the scrappy performance.

“We had a lot of chances. Last week we played much better and came away with a 2-1 loss and today not as good but we came away with a 3-0 win. I thought Springvale tried to play quality football, but didn’t execute it and we took advantage of it.

“We will definitely be looking to improve our channels of play going into the match against Bulleen this Friday night.”

Springvale assistant Petar Veljovic still managed to take out positives from the match.

“Today was always going to be a learning curve for us coming up against an experienced Richmond side,” Veljovic said.

“We have a lot of young boys in this squad that need to learn how to consistently play at this level week in week out so we can get positive results.”

MATCH DETAILS

Springvale White Eagles 0 lost to Richmond 2 (Armenian 42’, Cahill 78’ 89’) at White Eagles Stadium [HT: 0-1]

Springvale White Eagles: 30. Anthony CASSET (GK), 14. Joshua BOWEN, 3. Joey CALDERONE (11. Sanni DAUDA), 18. Ryan DON PAUL (13. Hamish MILLAR 63’), 4. Simo JOVANOVIC, 6. Slavisa SARIC, 8. Marcus HOLMES, 17. Slaven VRANESEVIC, 22. Milan JOVANOVIC, 19. Vojislav MILOJEVIC, 14. Joshua BOWEN, 21. Dejan ERAKOVIC (5. Scott MILLAR)

Unused subs: 12. Bojan TOMIC (GK)

Yellow card(s): 18. Joel Bowen (59’)

Red cards: None

Richmond: 1. Edward CHADWICK (GK), 2. Andrew GOFF, 6. Vincent BONTEMPS, 4. Mitchell BISSINGER, 11. Liam FLYNN (5. Rylan SADLER 66’), 8. Joshua KNIGHT, 10. Tim PURCELL, 14. Sebastian PETROVIC, 7. Hamlet ARMENIAN, 15. Gideon SWEET (12. Ryan OPPERMANN 59’), 9. Tom CAHILL, 18. Alistair QUINN (16. Mitchell BEAMISH 45’)

Unused subs: 20. Christian ROSSI, 17. Fabian STRANGES,

Yellow card(s): None

Red card(s): None