By Brad Hutchings (@BradHutchings_)

A Jason Hayne double has helped Green Gully claim a dominant 3-0 win over a disappointing Werribee City at Galvin Park on Sunday.

The striker netted a goal in each half as his side ran away with the match, with Matthew Sanders also finding the back of the net.

Werribee never found its feet in this encounter, as it struggled to keep possession over the entire duration of the contest.

Turnovers were prevalent, which greatly affected the flow of the game.

While Werribee struggled to get into the contest, Green Gully was swtiched on from the opening whistle, showing its intent to attack from the start.

Werribee just couldn’t contain the speed down the left produced from Osagie Ederaro and new signing Thomas Deng, as the duo left defenders in their wake on multiple occasions.

It was Ederaro who came close to opening the scoring in just the fifth minute as he burnt half of Werribee’s defence to be left alone in the box, but could only find the crossbar with his shot.

Green Gully had numerous opportunities to open the scoring in the first half but couldn’t seem to find the final touch to score.

It was little surprise that the first goal came through a Werribee turnover when Hayne scored in the 30th minute, as Green Gully pounced on a wayward pass from Anthony Ragusa in the middle of the park.

The visitors moved the ball quickly down the field as soon as they gained possession, resulting in Hayne finding the net with a tap-in on the far post.

Green Gully extended its lead just five minutes later courtesy of Sanders to give it a halftime scoreline its dominance thoroughly deserved.

Werribee introduced new signings Devon Bonne and Liam Brian into the match at halftime in an attempt to turn the match around, but the two couldn’t help their new teammates with Green Gully controlling the second half just as it did in the first.

The exclamation mark was put on the result in the 71st minute as Hayne used his chest to bag his second goal and his club’s third.

Werribee manager Nino Ragusa pinpointed post-match what went wrong for his side.

“They beat us all over the park today, compliments to them. Once a team comes with four or five experienced players like they do, my younger boys really don’t know how to get around it. It was pretty flat. You turn the ball over against this mob, they are going to destroy you,” Ragusa said.

While pleased with the result, Green Gully manager Bob Stojcevski felt improvements were still needed as his side prepares for a difficult run of games coming up. 

“I think the only disappointing thing about today was that we created so many chances and let them (Werribee) off the hook, particularly in that first half,” Stojcevski said.

“We made some fantastic cutting runs into the box, probably disappointed we didn’t finish the game off in the first half but that’s OK, it’s a good test of character when the other team is still in it and o see how you come back in the second half, which will keep us in good stead with some harder games we’ve got coming up.”

Green Gully will host Dandenong Thunder next week, while Werribee City is away to Hume City.

MATCH DETAILS

Werribee City 0 defeated by Green Gully 3 (Hayne 30’ 71’, Sanders 35’) at Galvin Park [HT: 0-2]

Werribee City: Tommy Dunn (GK), Nemanja Govedarica, Anthony Ragusa (Devon Bonne 45’), Simon Zappia (Jose Guerrero 68’), Damir Marusic (Liam Brian 45’) Dom Marafioti, Milan Savic (C), Bobby Vidanoski, Matt Cundari, Bobby Naumoski, Daniel Petrov

Unused subs: Roderick Yousef, Steve Cudrig

Yellow cards: Marusic(21’), Bonne(67’)

Red cards: None   

Green Gully: Kieran Gonzalez (GK), Daniel Jones, Matt Reid (Cameron Davis 85’), Rodrigo Vargas, Jeffrey Fleming(C), Jason Hayne (Peter Modaffari 78’), Ratip Cileli, Jem Berkant (Brent Fisher 80’), Matt Sanders, Thomas Deng, Osagie Ederaro

Unused subs: Chris Ailakis, Omar Abdigafar

Yellow cards: Ederaro (45’+2), Reid (62’), Jones (75’)

Red cards: None

Image credit: Charlie Lombardo