By Andrew Bishara (@_andrewbishara)

An explosive first half by Melbourne City has seen it record a thumping 7-1 win over Nunawading City at Mahoneys Reserve on Sunday.

Melbourne's high pressing and crisp passing was too much for the hosts as it scored five goals in the opening 30 minutes, before a further two in second half saw it bounce back from its loss to Bulleen Lions last week.

Marc Marino was the star of the show with four goals, as Luka Prelevic and Wade Dekker also got in the act. Nunawading’s Anthony Giannopoulos got the hosts' sole consolation.

It took less than 30 seconds for the visitors to start the onslaught when Marino dispossessed City's Jack Louziotis just outside the box and curled a lovely shot into the net.

The hosts barely had time to grasp what happened when 30 seconds later a cross from Matthew Millar took a deflection off Trung Luu and bundled into the net to make it 2-0.

Melbourne continued to put pressure on the Nunawading defence and it paid off with three goals in seven minutes.

First, Dekker tapped in the rebound after Phil Petreski's free kick was palmed away by City goalkeeper Keegan Coulter.

Four minutes later Hernan Espindola's deflected shot fell right to the feet of Marino, who had the easy job of knocking it into the net.

Marino completed his hattrick when a lovely throughball by Prelevic saw the striker go one-on-one with Coulter and he duly slotted the goal.

The hosts had some joy in the first half when Giannopoulos smashed in a powerful drive to beat Melbourne goalkeeper Yaren Sozer at his near post after a driving run into the box.

But it did not spark any second half fight back as Prelevic got Melbourne's sixth when he finished off a lovely team move with a well-executed finish just two minutes into the second period.

Marino then notched his fourth when he broke behind the City line, dribbled past Coulter and rolled the ball into the net.

City showed some fight, but the game slowly died out as Melbourne held possession to close the match out.

MATCH DETAILS

Nunawading City 1 (Anthony Giannopoulos 41’) lost to Melbourne City 7 (Marc Marino 1’, 26’, 29’, 55’, Millar 2’, Wade Dekker 22’, Luka Prelevic 47’)

Nunawading City: 1. Keegan COULTER (GK), 23. Jack GOW, 6: Jack LOUZIOTIS, 10: Ivan SKORICH, 7: Anthony GIANNOPOLOUS (20. Stefan PAPAGEORGIOU 72’),12: Chris GURR, 17: David MOROVIC (19: John-Luc SILVESTRI 55’),8: Mincen CUI, 3: Trung LUU (16: Spencer EGAN-TANNER 29’), 5: Peter EVANGELAKOS, 9: David ANTEQUERA

Unused Subs: 16: Spencer EGAN-TANNER, 22. Dylan TERVIT

Yellow Cards: LUU 17 , GURR 44’

Red Cards: Nil.

Melbourne City FC: 1. Yaren SOZER (GK), 3. Nicholas SYMEOY, 6. Phil PETRESKI, 7. Hernan ESPINDOLA (12. Anthony RIZK 58’), 9. Wade DEKKER, 10. Luka PRELEVIC (8.Ratip CILELI 58’), 13. Haralambos STAMBOULIDIS, 11. Stefan ZINNI (5. Leo ATHANASIOU 70’), 16. Matthew MILLAR, 19. Anthony TARANTO, 21. Marc MARINO

Unused Subs: 20. Jack WEST-ASTUTI, 22. Mehdi SARWARI

Yellow Cards: STAMBOULIDIS 38'
Red Cards: Nil.