By ADEM SARICAOGLU
GREEN Gully now has a rightful claim as the in-form team of the Victorian Premier League after knocking off runaway leader Northcote City on Saturday.
The Cavaliers added the ladder leader to their list of recent scalps with a 3-1 win at Green Gully Reserve.
Coach Jeff Fleming believes his side now has a much stronger belief it is a genuine title contender in the VPL after an indifferent start to the season under former coach Dean Hennessy.
“We’ve always had the ability to win games, and I think when I first took over there wasn’t much confidence and it was about just trying to get some momentum and some points,” Fleming said.
“Now that we’re starting to get that, people are starting to grow in confidence and we’re trying to play a bit more and things just keep improving on that front, which is good.”
After going ahead courtesy of a Northcote City own goal early in the piece, the Cavaliers’ plight was dealt a blow with Andy Vargas seeing red and given marching orders for a second yellow just before half time.
But despite that setback, it was Gully who managed to stay in control of the contest, adding another two goals through Mathew Sanders from the spot and sub Jason Hayne in the 70th minute to go 3-0 up.
Dean Piemonte snagged a consolation goal close to the final whistle, but it mattered little for the Cavaliers, who cruised to their sixth win from nine starts.
“Obviously, Northcote City’s been the best team all year, and we knew it was going to be a big challenge, so it was a great result to get the three points at home,” Fleming said.
“We did it the hard way I suppose and that made us have to work a bit harder, but that made the result even better in the end.”
Possession football has been a mainstay of Gully’s style since Fleming took the reins back in May, and he credits that change with the club’s marked improvement in recent months.
“I think we’ve a lot of good players, but they’ve got to play to their strengths and I don’t think we were doing that early on,” he said.
“We were playing a lot of long balls and that really didn’t suit our game style. I’ve tried to adopt a bit more of a possession, space type of match plan, which I think suits the type of players we have more.”
This Saturday fifth-placed Green Gully travels to face sixth-placed Port Melbourne in a battle that will loom crucial to the final make-up of the table.
