MELVILLE City Hockey Club took advantage of its first home fixture of the season to notch its second win in a 3-2 triumph over neighbour and rival Fremantle on Sunday.
A fast start was imperative against the in-form Fremantle side, and Melville got the best start possible with a first Premier League goal to Tristan Lasevicius after some brilliant lead up play from Ryan Hyder.
Melville’s lead was extended by Josh Byrne-Quinn, but Fremantle got a goal back just before the interval to make the half time score 2-1 in favour of the home team.
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READ NOWThe second half was a tense and testy affair punctuated by a superb individual goal to Fremantle’s West Australian representative Matt Bird to level the scores.
There was a flurry of yellow cards towards the end of the game as tempers became frayed in the heat, and the game looked like ending in a draw until the last minute when Lasevicius scored again after some excellent lead up play took the ball from one end of the field to the other.
Coach Russell Lee said he was proud of his team’s performance in difficult conditions.
“We had to fight through some tough periods but to build a lead, then hang in the game and score the winner in the last minute against strong and determined opposition was very satisfying,” Lee said.
“It’s great to play at home and to have wins from each of our top three sides but we need to start stringing some wins together, so we have to re-commit to the hard work in the areas where we know we can improve.
“Success this year will depend on us improving and maintaining a consistent run from now until September.”
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