Devils go back-to-back

FOR just the second time this season, Wangaratta City has recorded back-to-back victories in the AWFA division one men’s competition. The Devils continued the momentum from their 4-2 win over Melrose last weekend with a 2-0 result at home to Wodonga Heart. Wangaratta’s midfield and defensive unit held Heart at bay for long stretches of the match, while creating plenty of chances for their own attacking players. The deadlock was broken in the 37th minute, when Keenan Peruzzo slipped one past the keeper, before Campbell McDairmid doubled the lead five minutes later. Leading 2-0 at the half, it was all about maintaining their structures and intensity at the ball for the remaining 45 minutes. While there were some incursions into the Devils’ defence, nothing substantial came of it, and Wangaratta was able to bank the full allotment of points off the back of a solid whole-team performance. Senior coach Vitaly Leschen said the Devils continue to improve every week. “It was good to get another win,” he said. “I thought defensively we were excellent, we played the majority of the game in their half and they didn't really trouble us going forward. “Lorenzo [Cecchini], Justin [Cirillo] and Liam [Cooper] all played very good games - Liam in particular is another young kid who has built in confidence all year and is improving his performance each week.” While they may have secured the win, there is still work to be done finishing off in front of the goal. The Devils sit with a goal difference of -17, having only slotted 28 goals for the season. “I would have like to score a couple more and be a bit more clinical in front of goal,” Leschen said. “We lost our attacking shape a bit, but I think it was just the boys sort of wanting to score a bit too much. “It’s good, because gives us something to work on.” Meanwhile, the senior women were forced to forfeit their scheduled match with Heart, due to a lack of available players. Women’s coach Raul Pahina said it was the perfect storm of player unavialabilities. “We had a few out injured, a few out sick and some just away this weekend,” he said. “We had a total of eight unavailable across to the two grades, out of 20 registered players.” Pahina said they’ll be back to full strength for their match with Boomers. Meanwhile, the reserve women edged out a strong Heart line-up to take the win 3-2. Kat De Napoli, Eleisha Baker and Clare Christison all found the back of the net, securing the squad’s ninth win of the season.

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