It may have taken five matches, but Wangaratta City FC’s senior men’s soccer side has finally done it, claiming the three points for the first time this season.

After two losses and two draws, the Devils were able to put all the pieces together at South Wangaratta on Sunday with a 1-0 triumph over Wodonga Diamonds.

With both teams winless heading into the match, the stakes were high as the players took the field.

The first few minutes were spent testing each other out, before the tackles started coming in earnest.

While both sides had opportunities to break the deadlock, the scoreboard read 0-0 at half-time.

The Devils came out after the break like a completely different team, dominating field position and possession, but weren’t able to find the back of the net until the 77th minute through Jack Whiley.

Wangaratta City toed the line at times, with four players receiving a yellow card, but thankfully for the home side, they were able to keep 11 players on the field for the full match.

Coach Vitaly Leschen said their game improved radically after the break.

“I’ll be brutally honest, I thought we were a bit complacent - in the first half, we either didn’t show up or showed Diamonds way too much respect,” he said.

“They definitely demonstrated they’re better than a last-placed team, they’ve got some talented players.

“When we came out in the second half, we raised the tempo and took the game to them a bit, pressed them quite a lot in their own half, changed the formation.

“We just made a formation change at half-time, we shifted to three at the back, moving Stoych [Stoycho Ivanov] back there released Jacob [Saunders] and Lachy Campbell at left- and right-back a bit more and gave us a bit more run in the middle.

“We used Stoych as an anchor point in the structure with his experience, allowing Brodie [Tyres] and Lorenzo [Cecchini] to play a bit wider, getting on the ball a bit more.

“It really seemed to work - I don’t really remember them getting out of their own half in that second half, which was good to see.”

Leschen said goal-scorer Jack Whiley had really gone to the next level this season, blossoming into a heart and soul player in the squad.

“Credit to Jackie, he’s stepped up this year both with his on-pitch performance and leadership – he was by far the loudest on the weekend, he’s starting to get on the scoresheet and starting to reap the rewards for the effort he puts in,” Leschen said.

“He’s probably the hardest trainer we have, and he’s probably had a two-, three-year senior career that wouldn’t necessarily have started how he would’ve liked, but he’s starting to get some reward.

“He’s really pivotal to our team at the moment, all credit to him.”

The Devils will take this weekend off with a scheduled bye.

Meanwhile, the reserve women’s squad continued to go from strength to strength, still undefeated after knocking off Diamonds 2-0.

Sammy Scott and Joh McLaughlin scored either side of half-time in yet another dominant performance.

“It was another great win from the girls, hard-fought again - the division two women is proving a very strong competition,” coach Kristy Mellor said.

“We scored late in the first half after a goal from Sammy Scott, she had been on the wing for the majority of the first half with some very handy runs.

“Swapping her into the midfield gave her a good chance to score.

“Some excellent defence this week saw us hold up against Diamonds’ attack - Kaitlyn Broady was magnificent in defence against a very strong attacker.”