By Brandon Galgano (@bgalgano94)

Richmond has ended its inaugural NPL 1 campaign with five consecutive wins, defeating a hapless Dandenong City side 4-1 at Frank Holohan Soccer Complex on Sunday.

Having dominated from kick-off, the visitors found themselves two goals up by halftime courtesy of a Tom Cahill brace, before goals from Peter Sawan and Andrew Goff sealed an impressive victory.

With both sides fielding young outfits due to suspensions and injuries, it was Richmond which started the brighter with Tim Purcell the first to go close in the ninth minute, but his headed effort flew well wide of the post.

Young winger Ryan Oppermann then showed some fancy footwork to get round his marker out on the right before floating in a cross which eluded the head of Cahill, before Josh Knight controlled and fired well over the bar in the 12th minute.

Dandenong was under constant pressure during the opening 20 minutes but did create a few half chances with Dario Matkovic guilty of spurning one of those opportunities as his effort flew just over the bar from the edge of the area.

It was Richmond which was looking more and more dangerous in the final third and that pressure paid off in the 24th minute.

Following a fantastic block from Dandenong ‘keeper Marko Stevanja off a Tom Cahill effort, the home side failed to clear its lines with the ball eventually ending up at the feet of Knight, who danced around one player before being brought down in the box by Dandenong skipper John Carroll.

With the penalty awarded, the responsibility fell to Richmond captain Cahill, who made no mistake in slotting home his 25th goal of the season to make it 1-0 in the 25th minute.

Richmond should have doubled its lead in the 36th minute as Knight was played clean through on goal, but Stevanja saved brilliantly to his left in the one-on-one to keep the score at 1-0.

Richmond did eventually get that deserved second though with the last kick of the half as Cahill got on the end of a fantastic cut-back to clip the ball over Stevanja and into the bottom corner, meaning the visitors would go into the sheds leading 2-0.

It didn’t take Richmond long to grab a third after the break as Halil Gur was caught in possession by the ever dangerous Cahill, who cut the ball across to Sawan to slot home into an empty net to make it 3-0 in the 53rd minute.

Dandenong had its best chance to get back into the contest in the 64th minute as Goran Jozeljic found space in the area only to be denied by Rossi, who then had to get back across his line to hold the follow-up from Joseph Sieh.

Richmond then made it 4-0 in the 70th minute courtesy of a wonder strike from defender Goff.

The big man dispossessed a defender before striding forward and unleashing an unstoppable low drive into the bottom corner of the net from outside the area, leaving Stevanja with no chance.

To the home side’s credit, it found a response just two minutes later as substitute Daniel Buhic slotted home from just inside the area, but it was merely a consolation goal at this stage with the score at 4-1 with just over 15 minutes to play.

Richmond had a few more chances late on to add further gloss to the scoreline with Cahill driving a wonderful, curling free kick from 25 yards out off the crossbar and out before being denied once again by Stevanja in the closing stages, meaning the former Green Gully striker would end the season on 26 goals for the year and equal with Bulleen’s Joseph Katebian.

Richmond coach Rick Mensink was delighted with his side’s performance in difficult conditions but was still disappointed with not gaining promotion to the NPL despite a fantastic final month of the season from his squad.

"I thought we executed our game plan exceptionally well in difficult circumstances so I couldn’t have really asked for anything more from my boys,” Mensink said.

"It is still disappointing though that we haven’t gained promotion as since I’ve come into the setup here that was our objective, so despite playing some good football in the last few weeks I do think we have underperformed this season.’’

Dandenong City coach Ivan Duzel believed that it was a matter of making too many individual mistakes which cost his side the points, but pointed to a number of injuries and suspensions as the main reason for his side’s underperformance.

"We have had a lot of injuries and suspensions coming into the last few matches of the season and I think a few of our players simply couldn’t find enough energy to lift again today and I think we saw that with the few individual mistakes in the first half which cost us two goal", Duzel said.

"I do believe that we have shown that for a first year club (having been in State League 2 last season) we have been very competitive at times and I think that with a few strong signings next year we can push for a top-six finish.’’

Match Details

Richmond 4 (Cahill 25’, 45’, Sawan 53’, Goff 70’) defeated Dandenong City 1 (Buhic 72’) at Frank Holohan Soccer Complex

Dandenong City: 1 Marko STEVANJA (GK), 2 Karim EL HILALI (17 Daniel BUHIC 57’), 3 Halil GUR, 4 Simon STOREY (21 Denilson NORONHA 81’), 6 John CARROLL (C), 8 Dario MATKOVIC, 10 Sean SEAVILL, 11 Joseph SIEH, 12 Shaun FILIPOVIC, 19 Nicholas GLAVAN (15 Liam MCGUIRE 82’), 23 Goran JOZELJIC

Unused subs: 31. Kirby ZIADA, 14. Nico JURIC

 

Yellow cards: Carroll 24’, Matkovic 64’

Red cards: Nil

Richmond: 1 Christian ROSSI, 2 Andrew GOFF, 8 Mitchell BISSINGER, 5 Rylan SADLER, 11 Liam FLYNN (19 Andrew SKOULLOS 74’), 14 Peter SAWAN, 16 Daniel MILBORROW, 10 Tim PURCELL, 8 Joshua KNIGHT (18 Sebastian PETROVIC 50’), 12 Ryan OPPERMAN, 9 Tom CAHILL (C)

Unused subs: 20. Stephen HATZIKOURTIS, 13. Declan LAMBERT

Yellow Cards: Petrovic 81’, Purcell 84’

Red Cards: Nil