By ADEM SARICAOGLU
GREEN Gully will be desperate to collect all three points on offer this Wednesday evening after its Victorian Premier League finals aspirations took a hit last week.
Coming off their State Knockout Cup victory five days prior, the Cavaliers were punished by finals-bound Bentleigh Greens 4-1 at Kingston Heath on Friday night.
Gully could do little as Bentleigh’s Dane Milovanovic romped his way to a hat-trick, which was completed in the 63rd minute.
The first two goals came prior to the half-time whistle and a fourth, put away by Luke Sherbon in the 66th minute, all but sapped all life out of the match.
The injury-hit Cavaliers were quickly able to respond to Sherbon’s goal through Andy Vargas only a minute later but the damage was done, as Green Gully sunk its seventh loss of the year, leaving it outside the top five as of Sunday evening.
Club football manager Raymond Mamo told Star a first half knee injury to former Melbourne Victory star Roddy Vargas took a lot of wind out of Gully’s sails.
“I thought in the first 20 minutes of the game we were right into the game and it was an even contest at that particular time,” Mamo said.
“The game changed for us when Roddy Vargas was injured.
“He was on the sideline for about five to six minutes getting treatment and then he came back on, and even in that point in time the whole defence was really thrown out of balance and (Bentleigh) took advantage of the one man being down and put pressure on us.”
Mamo said Gully’s defensive effort would be addressed this week, but was keen to give credit to the opponent.
“They’ve got good players and we did struggle to hold them,” Mamo said.
“Up until that point in time when Roddy got injured we were in the game but then after that, it changed.
“They got one goal (in the 27th minute) and we put our head down and never recovered, and we can’t do that – not if you’re hoping to get into the finals.”
Mamo said he wasn’t overly concerned about Gully’s defensive efforts, instead backing its experience to make amends ahead of Wednesday’s crucial catch-up fixture away to Oakleigh.
Green Gully will be sweating on the fitness of Roddy Vargas, who is waiting on the results of MRI scans to determine the extent of his injury.
The Cavaliers’ final home-and-away fixture will be at home to Dandenong Thunder this Sunday.
