Melbourne Victory Women’s coach Joe Montemurro has declared the 4-0 drubbing of Newcastle “a win for the girls,” after his side secured passage into the W-League finals series.
The win came courtesy of a hat-trick of goals for Racheal Quigley, and a hat-trick of assists for Lisa De Vanna, who both toiled hard in the heat along with their teammates.
“The girls have worked very hard and they deserve to be here at this level,” Montemurro said post game.
“They’re starting to get to the type of football we’ve been working on all year and I’m proud of them because they’ve really shown the rewards of the hard work they’ve done from day one.
“It’s a good way to finish the regular season, it’s a win for the girls because they worked really hard from day one and I couldn’t ask for any more.”
Having lead his side into the post-season competition in his debut year at the helm, Montemurro concede whilst their aim was to make finals, they harbour the ambition of going all the way.
“The job’s not done yet, we want to go all the way, but I’m proud of the way they comported themselves and the way they’ve gone about things, it’s fantastic.
“We set ourselves the target of making finals but as I’ve said all along, it’s one game, one situation, one team at a time.
“We’re just gaining some nice momentum so it’s good.”
From a tactical standpoint, the heat made for a tough game, and the head coach was proud of how they worked the space, and controlled the pace of the contest to have the game on their terms.
“We looked at spaces where we could exploit them and it worked,” he said.
“In the end, you have to finish [your chances] and today was one of those days where we did.
“Newcastle are a very tricky side and we had to make sure we worked at a certain way to make sure we got the points.
“[Because of the heat] it was probably lucky that we got into a position where we could control the tempo, control the pace.”
Photo: Anita Milas/Melbourne Victory W-League