By Brad Hutchings (@BradHutchings_)

Bentleigh Greens has continued its unbeaten start to the season with a 1-0 victory over Werribee City at Galvin Park on Sunday afternoon.

A Brent McGrath goal just before the halftime break proved the difference for Bentleigh, which withstood a determined Werribee to record its second win of the season.

Werribee was in a rich vein of form heading into this fixture, having come off a dramatic 2-1 win over Melbourne Knights last weekend, but it couldn’t repeat that feat as it was defeated at home for the first time.

It was an even start to the game with both sides seeing plenty of the football.

Werribee and Bentleigh were both guilty of surrendering possession with sloppy passing that greatly affected the rhythm of the game.

Referee Brenton Hayward had a busy half as tackles came in thick and fast from both teams.

Werribee City’s Oliver Rowland received the first yellow for the game in the 21st minute thanks to an overzealous tackle.

As the half went on Bentleigh became much more comfortable than the hosts but failed to make it count with few meaningful attempts on goal.

The Greens’ first real sight on goal came in the 31st minute when Luc Jeggo’s goal-bound shot took a deflection to go out for a corner.

Werribee’s best chance for the half fell in the 36th minute as Simon Symeoy’s cracking free kick was met with an even greater save from Bentleigh ‘keeper Stuart Webster to deny Werribee what would have been a stunning goal.

Bentleigh hit Werribee with a sucker punch deep into the first half as McGrath got on the end of a nice Jeggo cross to put the visitors in front in the 43rd minute.

The goal changed the entire complexity of the half as both managers were forced to change their halftime talk.

The second half was virtually void of any real attacking threat from either side in a match where defence dominated.

Werribee pushed Bentleigh all the way in the second half but was let down by a lack of class up front. The back four of Bentleigh was watertight all afternoon, closing down any attacking threat from Werribee with ease.

Werribee’s only real chance to sneak a point occurred in the 57th minute as Webster was on hand again to keep out Josh Groenewald’s fierce shot with another fine save.

Despite its best intentions, Werribee just couldn’t break down the back four of Bentleigh.

Asked if he thought the result was an honourable loss, Werribee manager Nino Ragusa begrudgingly agreed.

“Yeah probably that. I don’t subscribe too easily to just saying yeah we lost, that’s it. We should have found better answers. We shouldn’t have conceded that goal just before halftime. If we went in at 0-0 I could have worked things out better,” Ragusa said.

“Bentleigh didn’t really carve us open too many times. It’s just this constant possession pressure. In the first half we didn’t stop what we wanted to stop. They came out too freely. We are not the type of side that’s going to sit back.”

While pleased with the win, Bentleigh manager John Anastasiadis said his side still had much room for improvement.

“Yeah it was a good, tough battle today. We made things hard for ourselves, we should have cleaned the game up much earlier but we didn’t. We want to work on a few things, especially in the final third. We’ve got to be better in our final third,” Anastasiadis said.

“It was a good performance. Our defence was very strong. It’s always good to not concede. When you don’t concede you win games.”

Bentleigh will look to back up its win when it hosts a struggling Green Gully on Wednesday night, while Werribee City will make the long trip to Shepparton to take on Goulburn Valley Suns on Saturday night.

Match Details

Werribee City 0 lost to Bentleigh Greens 1 (McGrath 43’) at Galvin Park [HT: 0-1]

Werribee City: Tommy Dunn(GK), Oliver Rowland, Simon Symeoy, Ryan Filipovic, Nemanja Govedarica, Milan Savic, Bobby Vidanovski (Simon Zappia 53’), Josh Groenewald, Ray Markley(Zois Galannopoulas 77’), Ivica Praiz, Robert Naumoski (Anthony Ragusa 52’)\

Unused Subs: Dominic Marusic, Roderick Yousef

Yellow Cards: Rowland(22’), Filipovic(52’), Vidonovski(51’)

Red Cards: None

Bentleigh Greens: Stuart Webster (GK), Thomas Mathews, Jack Webster, Christian Cavallo, Wayne Wallace, Steve Hatzikostas, Luc Jeggo (Kyle Nix 67’), Jamie De Abreu, David Stirton (Anthony Prioa 67’), Brent McGrath

Unused Subs: Alastair Bray, Liam McCormick, Nick Modaffari

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Pictured: Brent McGrath scores the solitary goal of the match (image credit: Mark Avellino)