By Lucas Pavlidis (@LucasPavlidis)

Box Hill United recorded a gritty 2-1 victory over Richmond at a windy Wembley Park on Saturday afternoon.

The opening 15 minutes saw three goals scored – Kenjok Athiu netted a brace to cancel out Tim Purcell’s goal - and there were no more to come afterwards as either side struggled to find the back of the net despite an array of chances.

Box Hill began incredibly quickly, and broke the deadlock a mere five minutes into the match.

Rinor Muriqi’s surging run from the left eventuated in the forward cutting in on his right and hitting a shot from distance.

The strike cannoned against the underside of the crossbar and appeared to have even crossed the line, but Athiu was on hand to head in the rebound from close range to open the scoring.

Richmond fought back only five minutes later through Purcell.

Some quick feet from Hamlet Armenian enabled the away side to get in behind Box Hill’s defence. Armenian squared the ball for his teammate Purcell, who calmly slotted the ball through Alex Pavlidis’ legs to level the scores.

But the game was only level for two minutes as the electrifying start continued.

Athiu again created space for himself and rounded his defender in a similar style to Richmond’s equaliser.

His cross met the feet of Muriqi, who failed to get the ball from under his feet, and his deflected shot fell to Athiu who bagged a very early brace.

An exciting opening period could have had more goals, if not for some last-ditch challenges from the home side.

Pavlidis gathered a bouncing ball on his line after Purcell’s effort from close range was deflected, and Josh Knight was also denied by a block from Alex Schroen to ensure that Box Hill remained in the lead at halftime.

Richmond continued to mount pressure at the beginning of the second period.

But against the run of play, Box Hill substitute Amgad Marieh almost extended his side’s lead with a speculative effort from range which clattered against the crossbar.

Pavlidis was called into action and pulled off a great save after Purcell seemed destined to score, and moments later foiled an effort from Tom Cahill with two defining stops in a matter of minutes.

Richmond’s pressure wasn’t enough to earn it a draw, as it struggled at the final hurdle against a Box Hill outfit that refused to yield its advantage.

Richmond coach Rick Mensink was disappointed with his side’s inability to find the net, despite the abundance of chances created.

“Definitely a game of missed chances. Part of the game is to put the ball in the back of the net and we didn’t do that enough,” Mensink said.

“I think Box Hill moved the ball well, but in terms of general play, there was only one team in it, but we didn’t score and that’s what you have to do.”

Mensink reassured the media that his side’s focus was to finish in the upper echelon on the NPL 1 table.

“We’ve got our minds firmly set on the pointy end of the top half of the table. The boys have belief in themselves and we’ve shown we can play football,” he said.

Pavlidis was happy to come away with the three points despite the gritty result.

“I thought we battled. We made it a battle. It was arguably one of the worst performances of the season, but sometimes you have to win gritty,” Pavlidis said.

Pavlidis said his saves were there to be made in a game where he was called into action on more than one occasion.

“I don’t like to harp on about it too much. I did my job today. I was called on when I needed to be called on. We needed someone at the back to steady things up and a few saves like that got them really revved up,” he said.

MATCH DETAILS

Box Hill United 2 (Athiu 5’, 12’) defeated Richmond 1 (Purcell 10’) at Wembley Park [HT: 2-1]

Box Hill United: 35. Alexander PAVLIDIS (GK), 42. Michael GERACE (8. Amgad MARIEH 55’), 29. George HOWARD (16. Christian LAR 88’), 23. Josh VALADON, 22. Nick KOKOLAKIS, 26. Aaron PORCARO, 14. Kenjok ATHIU, 12. Adrian DEL MONACO, 10. Rinor MURIQI, 7. Damien PETERS, 5. Alex SCHROEN

Unused Substitutes: 21. Christian PAVLIDIS, 2. Nikola SURDOSKI, 13. Alex ARKALOVIC

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Richmond: 1. Edward CHADWICK (GK), 2. Andrew GOFF, 6. Vincent BONTEMPS, 4. Mitchell BISSINGER, 11. Liam FLYNN, 8. Joshua KNIGHT, 10. Tim PURCELL, 14. Sebastian PETROVIC, 7. Hamlet ARMENIAN, 12. Ryan OPPERMANN (15. Gideon SWEET 55’), 9. Tom CAHILL

Unused Substitutes: 20. Tom BANFIELD, 16. Mitchell BEAMISH, 5. Rylan SADLER, 17. Fabian STRANGES

Yellow cards: Cahill 49’, Knight 81’

Red Cards: None