MELVILLE City’s men’s hockey team extended its winning streak to four with a convincing a 5-2 victory over Victoria Park-Xavier on Saturday afternoon.
It is Melville’s ninth win from its last 11 matches and leaves the team clear in third on the ladder with four regular season games remaining.
The tem got off to the best possible start with a goal to Nick Tate inside 45 seconds, followed up with another from Gavin Byers inside 90 seconds.
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READ NOWVictoria Park responded to make it 2-1 before Justin McDougall added a third to make the half-time score 3-1.
Victoria Park scored immediately after half time to make it 3-2 and created some nervousness among the Melville supporters but goals from Ross Hall and Matthew Willis saw Melville run out comfortable winners.
Coach Russell Lee said his side’s early dominance had not flowed through to the remainder of the game.
“I don’t think I have ever been in a game where we were 2-0 up inside 90 seconds before,” he said.
“But realistically the rest of the game was not at the standard we have been setting over the last few weeks.
“We were at full strength against a team who has been struggling recently and we didn’t control key areas of the game as well as we would have liked.
“There are still five teams challenging for the last three places in the finals series, so we have to keep winning.
“We will have to improve significantly on that performance in order to make the finals and to leave a mark if we get there.”