Going by Green Gully’s result against table topping Bentleigh Greens, knocking off third placed South Melbourne should be a breeze tonight.
That’s not exactly how football works, but then again, after Bentleigh stamped their title credentials with wins against South and Heidelberg United, few would have expected their 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Green Gully on Saturday.
The defeat ended an 18-game unbeaten streak and brought the runaway leaders crashing back down to Earth.
While football serves up many complicated and unexplainable scenarios, Gully’s star striker Liam Boland maintains the key to beating the season favourites was to keep the plan simple.
“We stayed very tight and compact, making it hard for them to break us down, but every player in our starting 11 put in a shift and when we do that we are very hard to beat,” Boland said.
“All week we were positive and after coming off two consecutive wins, we were filled with confidence.
“We truly believed that if we played to our best, were relentless with our pressure and took our chances, the game was ours for the taking.”
Boland was one of the standout players in the contest, slicing the visitors’ defence open with two goals, his third brace of the season.
Curiously, the forward still hasn’t scored a single goal in an NPL game, striking a brace for Oakleigh against Melbourne Knights followed by a hat-trick on debut for Gully against Avondale FC, with two more doubles inflicted upon Dandenong Thunder and now Bentleigh.
It takes his season tally to nine, and helped Gully from 10th to 8th spot on the table.
It’s been a relatively drastic rise for the Cavaliers recently, who just under a month ago were dangling perilously above the relegation zone after a 1-0 defeat to bottom placed North Geelong Warriors.
“I thought it was the best game I’ve had this year, I could have had a couple more goals but was delighted for the team and the club to come up with a win,” he said.
“I’ve really enjoyed my football a lot more since I moved from Oakleigh, everybody at Gully has treated me very well since I arrived which made it easy to settle in, which has got the best out of me.
“The atmosphere at the club is as good as it has been since I arrived, we are still dirty with ourselves for dropping points a few weeks ago but we are all determined to finish the season off as strongly as possible.”
With a short turnaround until Tuesday night’s clash against South Melbourne, Boland is confident his team can use its momentum to sneak a result past the depleted reigning champions, who are coming off the back of two consecutive league defeats.
“The opportunity is there for us to get a result and we all believe we can,” he said.
“It’s a huge game for us and if we play like we did against Bentleigh, I’m sure we will give ourselves every chance to take the points.”