By Brad Worrall

RICHMOND continued its pursuit of leader Melbourne Victory in the NPL1 east conference with a workmanlike 3-0 win against Murray United at the La Trobe University ground in Wodonga on Saturday.

Richmond improved to 51 points with Saturday's win, behind Victory (51) on goal difference and four points clear of third-placed Kingston City (44), Victory's Monday night opponent.

The promotion hopefuls went to halftime with a 1-0 lead after Hamlet Armenian converted from the penalty spot on 33 minutes, their first shot on target.

But immediately after the break Richmond found another gear, dominating possession and chances.

It was Armenian’s pace that unlocked the United back four just 10 minutes into the second half his cross ricocheting among defenders and attackers before Alex Caniglia doubled the lead.

A little over 10 minutes later and it was the captain Tom Cahill who made no mistake from a one-on-one to chip keeper Ben Russell and put the contest beyond doubt.

Head coach Rick Mensink was just happy to get away with the three points.

“We made hard work of that today,” Mensink said.

“But I was impressed with Murray United, they were well organised and I thought that Ryan Giles for them at the back was probably the man of the match.

“They were obviously a little bit undermanned and down on confidence but they kept going right to the end of the game.”

It was the home side that had the best of the chances early and late against Richmond.

A Zac Walker free-kick on 26 minutes found Richmond keeper Chris Davis at full stretch to parry the ball wide, while the introduction of Mat Hasler on 50 minutes saw the substitute push the ball across the face of goal five minutes later, before climbing for a header on the hour that sailed over the crossbar.

United’s lack of fresh subs was also crucial when first Jayson Ferguson limped from the field after just 20 minutes, his replacement Darcy Pawlik, who had played a full 90 minutes in the under-20 fixture, also replaced just half an hour later.

But in the end it was the speed and strength of the visitors that prevailed.

Armenian’s pace up front and the uncompromising defence of Jordan Seeto and Andrew Goff proving too big a stumbling block when United adopted a more direct approach and looked to capitalise on the speed of Adam Waters in the second stanza.

MATCH DETAILS

RICHMOND 3 (Armenian 33’ Caniglia 55’, Cahill 67’) def MURRAY UNITED 0 La Trobe University Ground, Wodonga

YELLOW CARDS:
Zac Walker, Ryan Giles, Adam Waters; Murray United
Joshua Knight; Saint Albans

RICHMOND: 20. C Davis 2. A Goff 18. J Seeto 70' M Waters 23. L Valadon. 75' J Kelly 11. L Flynn 6. P Sawan 67' R Lambert 17. S Catherine 8. J Knight 7. H Armenian 10. A Caniglia 9. T Cahill

MURRAY UNITED: 1. N Brown 11. J Ferguson 22' D Pawlik 50' M Hasler 16. S Pye 12. M Jessup 23. B Chaffey 5. A Dunn 15. R Giles 37. A Eggleston 65' A West 14. A Waters 17. M Woldemichael 7. Z Walker