On the 28th January 2017 Canberra United beat Melbourne Victory 5-1 at McKellar Park. Ashleigh Sykes and Grace Maher scored that day along with Yakari Kinga, an international World Cup winner for Japan. Hayley Raso played centre defence for Canberra and was booked. A young Nikki Flannery came on as a substitute along with Lisa De Vanna and Ellie Brush. Matildas Emma Checker and Jenna McCormick played too. It was the last time Canberra United have beaten Melbourne Victory. This time Nikki Flannery was returning to McKellar Park, on the wing for Melbourne Victory. It didn’t take her long to mark her return.
How the team lined up
There was one change from the previous starting 11 for Canberra United. Tegan Bertolissio came in at right back in place of Alex McKenzie, who dropped to the bench. This was a like for like swap, presumably to give Bertolissio more experience and game time. Lillian Skelly came back into the squad in place of Ruby Nathan. After a promising debut in Melbourne last week Bethany Gordon retained her place in the squad. Aideen Keane was still out of the squad with a hamstring injury.
It was a hot day in Canberra, around 30 degrees, for the visit of second placed Melbourne Victory. So the heat was on in more ways than one. Two minutes into the match the ball broke to Nikki Flannery on the left-hand side of Canberra’s penalty area. She let fly and there’s only one Sally James tipped the ball over the bar for a corner. As Murphy lined up the corner kick Sara D’Appolonia and Nikki Flannery gathered in front of there’s only one Sally James. D’Appolonia had a chat with Flannery. Heyman, Markovski and Malone were nearby but there’s only one Sally James was left to deal with the scheming Melbourne duo. Their plan required precise delivery from Murphy to spear the corner to the near post direct to Flannery. The corner came over according to plan, D’Appolonia pushed Markovski out of the way, Malone missed the header and Flannery stood her ground and guided the ball into the net. Heyman remained rooted to the spot. It was another defensive disaster from a corner kick following last weeks effort against Melbourne City. The popular Flannery received a generous round of applause and looked a little embarrassed as she gathered for the restart.
If I was a betting man, I’d put money on Devon Jackson scoring for Newcastle Jets against Canberra in the next match. That would complete the hattrick of recent former players scoring against Canberra following Laura Hughes and Nikki Flannery over the past two weeks.
To their credit Canberra tried to get on with it like nothing happened. The game started to even out. Victory nearly made it 2-0 on the 5-minute mark when Jansevski’s cross became a shot that came off the far post. Half chances fell to Heyman one end then to D’Appolonia and Rachel Lowe at the other. The game then became battle of the midfield with neither side being able to fashion a decent opening in front of goal. In the 34th minute Heyman robbed the ball off Chidiac, much to her disgust, in midfield and glided toward the Victory goal. This time Heyman’s shot went wide but maybe it was an indication of Heyman’s frustration and lack of service.
Just before half time D’Applolonia picked up the ball outside the right-hand side of Canberra’s penalty area and sent over what looked like a cross. The ball floated slowly toward the far post, bounced awkwardly in front of there’s only one Sally James and landed, somehow, in the back of the net. Canberra could feel a little hard done by to be going in at half time 2-0 down. It was an even and messy first half.
Canberra replaced Malone with Bethany Gordon for the second half. The pattern continued with both sides jostling in midfield but not creating much. Nikki Flannery had a crack from distance that came off the crossbar. Victory looked more composed overall, as you would be being 2-0 ahead in oppressive heat. They also had the tireless Alex Chidiac, the Evergizer Bunny in midfield who never seems to slow down. Alana Murphy shot just wide following a nice Melbourne Victory move. Then it took three defenders to prevent Heyman getting a clear sight of goal.
Flannery was substituted in the 58th minute having had significant influence on the game. Canberra kept striving forward, remaining positive but lacking the final touch to create good chances. Chidiac was driving Melbourne forward too and fashioned a good chance for Lowe who could only shoot softly at there’s only one Sally James.
With 20 minutes to go Lillian Skelly came on for Hayley Taylor-Young. Skelly was immediately into the action with a good run to the bye-line, pulling the ball back to create a little mayhem in the Melbourne box. Again, Canberra couldn’t get a shot off when it mattered. Lillian Skelly charged down the wing and crossed for Christopherson. The excellent Beattie Goad cleared for a corner. Goad announced her impending retirement before the game to pursue a career in medicine. She has been a consistently top player for Melbourne for a few years now and will undoubtedly be missed by everyone. The resultant corner almost paid dividends for Canberra as Markovski tried to divert the ball goalwards at the near post.
With the 90 minutes up Canberra made two like-for-like substitutions. McKenzie coming on for Ayson and Holly Murray on for Stanic-Floody who had got through a lot of work in midfield. But it was too late to make a difference for Canberra.
So Melbourne Victory extended their domination over Canberra. Canberra have now gone 5 games without a win. However, they remain positive, and hopefully confident, in play and young players are getting better each game. Lillian Skelly is a prime example in this game. Trailing 2-0 and time running out, Skelly was positive and caused the experienced Melbourne defenders problems.
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