By Rory Flanagan (@Rory_Flanagan)

Bentleigh Greens recorded a 3-1 victory over a much improved Green Gully side at Kingston Heath on Wednesday night.

The hosts had to endure heavy pressure from Gully in the second half despite the comfortable scoreline.

Brent McGrath's third goal in as many matches put the Greens in front before Jamie De Abreu and David Stirton completed the scoring either side of Andy Vargas's consolation.

It was Gully which started brightly in cool, crisp footballing conditions, although its early positivity came to nothing but speculative strikes from distance.

In the 16th minute, McGrath demonstrated his pedigree to open the scoring. The one-time Socceroo controlled a looping cross inside the area before skipping around his man and finessing the ball into the back of the net.

On his return from a long-term shoulder injury, Alastair Bray looked nervous with the ball at his feet. This first became evident when Jason Hayne pressured last year’s U21 VPL Player of the Year, forcing a ricochet onto the roof of the net.

The goal set the hosts on their way and after a dominant spell they deservedly doubled the lead. Diminutive but industrious midfielder Luc Jeggo set up De Abreu, who whipped his effort into the top corner of Akim Abdul's goal.

Gully should have been three behind when Abdul was caught in no man's land after a woeful backpass, but Anthony Proia shot wide of the empty net.

Again the Cavaliers were let off the hook just before the break, this time De Abreu sent Brent McGrath's stunning through ball sailing over the bar after jinking past two defenders inside the area.

The first chance fashioned in the second period fell to De Abreu, and the winger repeated the dose by blazing over the bar once more.

Gully skipper Andy Vargas opportunistically finished a poorly cleared cross on the hour mark and from there onwards, Gully stormed back into the game and dominated the final 30 minutes.

Osagie Ederaro replicated Proia's first-half miss when he sped past the oncoming Bray but staggeringly fired wide. For all his shakiness, Bray then redeemed himself with a simply stunning save to deny Sean Harding's cracking free kick as the recipients of a 6-1 loss at Oakleigh pressed for a pride-restoring point.

The visitor’s final chances came from two extraordinary goalmouth scrambles in the space of a minute. A ridiculous game of pinball in which the ball was cleared off the line twice resulted in a corner, subsequently headed against the bar by Roddy Vargas from close range.

Bentleigh punished its opponents for wastefulness with a swift counterattack crafted by the exceptional McGrath in the penultimate minute of normal time. The No.11 showed a brilliant turn of pace to set up substitute David Stirton for a simple side-footed finish from 12 yards.

Bentleigh coach John Anastasiadis was reflective post match and paid credit to the away side.

"In the end we were probably lucky to come away with three points. I thought Gully played exceptionally well for at least 35 minutes of the second half,” Anastasiadis said.

“We’ve got to be better than that and we’ve got to understand that you’ve got to clean teams up as quick as possible and we didn’t do it."

Promoted to head coach, Aaron Symons was content with his charges' display.

"I thought collectively as a group it was a lot better than it has been, particularly defensively,”Symons said.

“We made structural changes post-Oakleigh game and also change of personnel. The way the boys adhered to the game plan, I was actually very happy with but again just a couple of individual errors in the first half and the second half have actually cost us."

MATCH DETAILS

Bentleigh Greens 3 (McGrath 16', De Abreu 37', Stirton 89') defeated Green Gully 1 (A.Vargas 61') at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

Bentleigh Greens: Alastair Bray (GK), Thomas Mathews, Jack Webster, James Cumming, Luke Pilkington (Cristian Cavallo 67') Wayne Wallace (C), Luc Jeggo Liam McCormick (Kyle Nix 60’), Jamie De Abreu, Anthony Proia (David Stirton 78’), Brent McGrath

Unused Subs: Stuart Webster, Nick Modaffari

Yellow cards: McCormick 60' Wallace 80'

Green Gully: Akim ABDUL (GK), Daniel JONES, Ratip CILELI (Mitchell BISSINGER 83), Rodrigo VARGAS, Jeffrey FLEMING (Brent FISHER 48') Mathew SANDERS, Sean HARDING,  Andy VARGAS (C), Osagie EDERARO (Jem BERKANT 69'), Brian VANEGA, Jason HAYNE

Unused subs: Cameron DAVIS, Dilen IBRAHIM

Yellow cards: Sanders 70'