Oakleigh re-ignited their finals charge with a 2-0 win over Port Melbourne on Friday night. Veton Kocari and Goran Zoric were the heroes for the Cannons, who are continuing to improve under coach Miron Blieberg.
Port had been in hot form, having recorded victories in their last two matches to be sitting third on the table. Oakleigh though were superb from the outset, and should have taken the lead after just 5 minutes when Dusan Bosnjak missed an free header from point-blank range following some excellent work by Goran Zoric on the right flank.
The Cannons looked sharp in the early stages, with former Wellington Phoenix midfielder Alex Smith finding winger Zoric several times with long range passes to open up the Port Melbourne defence. Zoric would go on to have an excellent match, and after switching to the left the speedster set up a chance for Veton Kocari, who also headed wide.
The former Dandenong striker would make amends just a minute later however, when a mix-up between a Port Defender and goalkeeper Adam Hrehoresin allowed Kocari to put the ball into an open net.
Both sides had multiple opportunities to score in the first half, with Graham Hockless going close from a free kick for the hosts before Daniel Visevic missed a golden chance just after the half-hour mark. Port ended the half the stronger of the two sides, and almost equalised in stoppage time when last week’s hero Hockless drew a sharp save from Oakleigh shotstopper Lewis Italiano, who had another strong game.
Oakleigh came out after the break with a much more defensive mindset and as a result the second half was a polar opposite to the first, with few opportunities for either side. Neither side looked like scoring until the 78th minute when Adam Hrehoresin palmed Goran Zoric’s effort away from a corner.
Some slack marking from Port led to a short corner being played to Zoric with plenty of space just outside the box, and this time the little dynamo found the back of the net with a wonderful curling strike. Zoric should have doubled his account minutes later when he rounded the keeper, only to lose control of the ball with an empty net at his mercy. It mattered little however, and Cannons assistant Franz Weimper was very happy with how his team performed against a finals bound side: “It gives us a lot of good feeling. Obviously being able to get a clean sheet against a top side away from home, it’s very re-assuring.
Weimper was stoked with the performance of winger Goran Zoric, who was clearly best afield over the 90 minutes. “Zoric is a good player. People forget that he is still a young professional. He is gaining confidence in himself, which is the confidence that Miron as head coach gives him. If that goal that he scored was overseas, you would be seeing it on the highlight reels on T.V. We’re very pleased with him”.
Port Melbourne coach Eric Vassiliadis was philosophical about his team’s performance.
“Today we didn’t have the solution. Am I worried? Not really, I think we have enough talent in our team to find those solutions”.
Port Melbourne play Pascoe Vale next week, but not before a huge clash against Melbourne Victory on Tuesday night, a match Vassiliadis says they will be aiming to win.
“We will pay them due respect, they are Melbourne Victory, but we are going into that game aiming to beat them.”
Oakleigh host Green Gully next week who fell to a resurgent Hume City.
Port Melbourne: Adam HREHORESIN, Amadu KOROMA, Christopher GROSSMAN, Peter ROBERTS, James RICCOBENE (Evan BATSIS 61′), Adam NAKIC (Luke BOWEN 65′), Daniel VISEVIC, Graham HOCKLESS (Luka PRELEVIC 70′), Martin MASON, Lambros HONOS, Jake NAKIC.
Unused Substitutes: Dennys MARTIN, Timothy PATON.
Goals: None
Yellow Cards: Riccobene (53′), Koroma (68′), Honos (77′), Roberts (77′).
Red Cards: None.
Oakleigh Cannons: Lewis ITALIANO, James CUMMING, Michael BOXALL, Casper ANDERSEN, Andrew MULLET, Alexander SMITH (Steven GRAY 61′), Evan CHRISTODOULOU, Goran ZORIC, Reece VITTIGLIA (Aristidis DRAKOS 84′), Veton KORCARI (Jesse KRNCEVIC 72′), Dusan BOSNJAK.
Unused Substitutes: Griffin McMASTER, Damir PRODANOVIC.
Goals: Korcari (25′), Zoric (78′).
Yellow Cards: Cumming (28′), Gray (84′)
Red Cards: None.