By Brad Worrall

DANDENONG City has outmuscled Murray United in a 3-0 win at a wet and wintry La Trobe ground in Wodonga.

The visitors dominated the first half with no less than eight corners to zero.

Andy Jeres, Sean Seavill and Chris Antoniadis created havoc in and around the box.

And it was Antoniadis who found an unmarked Ashley Cattermole on the half hour, his header breaking the deadlock.

City took a 1-0 advantage into halftime but it was the home side that dominated the opening exchanges in the second stanza.

United controlled possession with left back Ben Chaffey continuing to get forward with purpose.

Zac Walker buried a free kick into the wall after just five minutes and then a well-rehearsed corner came in to the feet of the striker and looked goal bound before being cleared by a solid City defence.

The side that beat Melbourne Victory 5-0 a couple of weeks ago were stronger on the ball, more cynical in defence and went forward in waves.

Chris Ross popping up on either side of the park tormented the United defenders but it was Keegan Ziada who pounced on a goal mouth scramble with less than five minutes of regular time remaining to kill the contest and give City a 2-0 lead.

Two minutes later it was a diving header from substitute Alex Rojas that added the third and ended his involvement in the game with a dislocated shoulder.

Dandenong City coach Aaron Healey was just happy to get the points.

“It is always a tough journey up here and it was tough conditions,” Healey said.

“In the first half we had the better of the chances but then in the second half, in that first 25 minutes, they really came at us.

“At this level you need to wear teams down.

“Once we got the second (goal) it was game over and credit to our boys that we pushed for a third.

“They are a good young side, still developing and they will go ahead in leaps and bounds in the coming years.

“I think it is great for the league that Murray United has joined the competition and good for the game up here on the Border.”

It was far from a fairytale for Murray United’s caretaker coach James Coutts but he was far from disappointed.

The English visa player took over from Mick Richards midweek.

“We just need to be better at either end of the park, we need to be more ruthless in defence and that final ball into the box needs to have more purpose,” Richards said.

“For 30-35 minutes in that second half we had a lot of the ball, moved it really well.

“But today was a tale of the two boxes, I thought we were great in the middle of the park.

“Big wrap on Chaffey – he doesn’t leave anything out there, a beautiful passer of the ball, a good footballer and he copped a knock just before halftime and just pushed through it to be among our better players, I thought the back four were all good today.”

Match Details: 

Murray United 0 defeadted by Dandenong City 3 (Cattermole 29’, Ziada 86’, Rojas 88’) at La Trobe University, Wodonga. [HT: 0-1]

Murray United: Russell, Woldemichael, Jessup, Pye, Chaffey, Dunn, Giles (Ntakirutimana 78m), Coutts, Pawlik (Masudi 82m), Hasler (Ferguson 64m), Walker

Yellow Cards: Antoniadis

Dandenong City: Salcin, Clarke, Ross, Wynne, Carroll, Ziada, Cattermole (Rojas 84m), Seavill (Filiz 87m), Jerez (Di Iorio 64m), Filipovic, Antoniadis