Check out all the weekend’s highlights from across the NPL and VPL

TALKING POINTS: Green Gully triumphs under pressure, Melbourne Victory ends drought, another St Albans upset and an eight-goal stunner.

Green Gully celebrates a goal against Melbourne Knights. Picture: Mark Avellino

Another big weekend of NPL and VPL football.

Some clubs triumphed under immense pressure, while extraordinary droughts were broken.

Classic goals were scored and nails were chewed to the bone in stunning high-scoring draws.

Check out all the highlights from across the weekend.

GULLY FIRE

The heat was on Green Gully and coach David Chick. After the worst start to a NPL season in club history, a loss on Friday night could have spelt the end of the partnership. However, the Cavaliers responded magnificently with their backs to the wall. Welcoming Melbourne Knights to Gully Reserve, the first half was a tense arm-wrestle. Having not scored in three matches, Gully needed someone to step up and captain Josh Hope was the man. The former Melbourne Victory man ran onto a through ball and somehow beat Chris Oldfield from a tough angle. Having taken a 50th-minute lead, the hosts doubled it just two minutes later as Scott Lochhead opened his account. A strong run from Jalil Regague had the Knights defence on the back foot and a superb through ball found Lochhead all alone for a simple finish. Finishing off a match-winning 12-minute burst, Gianluca Iannucci then sealed the three points with a fierce shot off the crossbar and in. Speaking to club media after the win, Hope said the win was for the fans that continued to back the club after it’s 5-0 loss to Dandenong City. “It hasn’t been easy, it’s been quite difficult the last five weeks,” he said. “A lot of boys have been fighting through injury, we know the performances haven’t been up to scratch, but this was coming. “It’s a huge effort, we owed that win to the club. “It was a beautiful feeling (to score) and we’re just so happy to get the points. “We owe it to (the fans), those guys they come out, they watch our training sessions, this win was for them. “It means a lot, after last week they were still here.” The win moves the Cavaliers off the bottom of the ladder, and the club will look to keep the momentum rolling when they travel down to Paisley Park to face Altona Magic.

AVONDALE BRING LIONS BACK TO EARTH

It was certainly a different atmosphere at Avengers Park on Saturday compared to BT Connor Reserve last week. It was a different result too for Preston as Avondale stamped its authority on the competition with a 3-1 win in the top-of-the-table blockbuster. It was the Lions first loss of the campaign, leaving Avondale as the only perfect team with a sixth win from six starts. Stef Valentini opened the scoring in the 42nd minute, calmly finishing after a lovely fake by Kristian Trajceski opened up plenty of space on the left. However, Preston was level just minutes after the restart as Connor Bell capitalised on a Tom Manos mistake. The Avengers keeper came out to punch but missed and the Lions striker found the back of an empty net. Yet, it only seemed to spark the hosts and Kur Kur restored the lead in the 54th minute, set up by a Trajceski through ball. Many Aguek sealed the three points with a lovely turn and finish through traffic in the 89th minute that seemed to catch Bon Scott by surprise. The result sees Avondale extend its lead at the top of the table to five points and sets up another top-of-the-table clash, this time with Dandenong Thunder. Preston slips to third.

🚨🟡 NPLMVIC GOAL! 56:16: Dandenong Thunder FC score to make it DTFC 1 : SMFC 0.

Watch live and free at https://t.co/SD1KcDDDwUpic.twitter.com/X1SdZiRAhL

— NPL Victoria (@nplvictoria) March 15, 2025

THUNDER PILE MORE MISERY ON SOUTH

Dandenong Thunder sits in second place on the NPL ladder. Few would have predicted that at the start of the season. The boys from George Andrews Reserve piled more misery on South Melbourne with a gritty 1-0 win on Saturday night, their first win over Hellas in four years. Dandenong is now 4-1-1 after a third straight win. Yuki Uchida was the hero, scoring the match-winner in the 57th minute. The Japanese midfielder set up the goal with a strong run through midfield. He found Wade Dekker on the right, who’s cross bounced into the heart of the box. Daniel Clark tipped it back for Uchida to power it home. The trouble continues for South, which now has three straight defeats and has been kept scoreless in all of them, slipping to ninth on the NPL ladder with a trip to Hume City – which it beat five times last season – on Friday night.

HEIDELBERG HIGH FIVE

It was the Bul Juach and Asahi Yokokawa show at the Home of the Matildas on Friday night as Heidelberg United ran riot against Hume City. Juach scored a brace either side of half-time to give the Warriors a two-goal lead. Yokokawa set up one of those goals and then decided to go it all himself, scoring a marvellous second-half hat-trick. The Japanese forward scored his first in the 64th minute, driving down the middle before unleashing from outside the box. His second came in the 83rd, pinching the ball off a defender, dancing to the left before shooting cross goal into the right corner. In fact, all three of his goals nestled in the right bottom corner. The hat-trick completed in the 92nd minute as he was left all alone at the top of box to once again power home. The win snaps a two-game winless run and sees United sit fifth, leap-frogging Hume.

VICTORY ON THE BOARD

After six games, Melbourne Victory is finally on the board in 2025. Dating back to the club’s last NPL campaign in 2016, it ends a 21-match winless streak. The academy youngsters did it under the bright lights of the NPL Victoria Match of the Round too, taking down Port Melbourne 3-0 at Murphy Reserve on Friday night. Patrick Wall kicked off the scoring in the 23rd minute. Tommaso Minutoli was denied one-on-one but Wall was there to follow up and put away the rebound. Victory doubled its lead in just after the hour mark in a crazy goal-mouth skirmish. Daniel Lazarevski, Wall and Luka Kolic all had bids turned away by Sharks keeper Luka Romic. Despite Romic’s heroics, Amanhomm Khamis then put the ball in his own net for an unfortunate own goal. Lazarevski then sealed the drought-breaking three points in the 83rd minute. The Victory striker looked shutdown as he had the ball on the byline with Khamis closing him down but his bad angle shot surprised Romic and squeezed through his legs and into the net. The victory takes Melbourne out of the bottom two, up to 12th on goal difference.

SAINTS STUN AGAIN

St Albans just lifts for the big boys. Three weeks ago the Saints were winless and faced a nightmare runs of South Melbourne, Avondale and Oakleigh. They knocked off South, pushed Avondale to the edge and on Saturday, knocked off a red-hot Cannons outfit at Jack Edwards Reserve. The 2-1 victory lifts St Albans to eighth on the NPL ladder. In just the sixth minute, St Albans scored first. Emmanuel Peters delightfully brought down a long-ball, stepped inside a defender and – luck was on his side – deflected a shot off Ajak Deu and in. Deu would respond perfectly for Oakleigh, getting a strong header the end of Joe Guest’s cross in the 22nd minute. While his effort was parried away Jacson Riley, the rebound bounced off a Saints defender and back in. However, the visitors were back in front on the stroke of half-time. Josh Gulevski unleashed a long-range missile from 30m that Nick Feely couldn’t touch. Unlike last week, there would be no fade out. A terrific stat on St Albans’ social media revealing it’s been 11,933 days since it defeated Oakleigh away.

EIGHT-GOAL THRILLER

Easily one of the most bonkers matches that will be played this season. It was definitely a tale of two halves as FC Melbourne and Moreland City played out a stunning 4-4 draw at Kevin Bartlett Reserve on Saturday night. Ali Al Sheikh gave the visitors the lead in just the eighth minute. Jason Quinlan, Al Shiekh’s second and Chris Tena then made it 0-4 at half-time, Moreland City was running riot. As you can guess, it all changed after the break. It took almost 20 minutes for Srbija to find a breakthrough before Marcus Dimanche found the back of the net. He had a second just four minutes later and it was game on. Time was running out for the hosts before Chris Davies found a third in the 83rd minute to set up a grandstand finish. Then with almost the last kick of the game, Jaime Wilson scored a 96th minute equaliser to spark wild home crowd celebrations and break Moreland hearts. Neither team has even acknowledged the result on their social media pages, probably still recovering – we hope.

GREENS CARRY ON

No doubt, this is the way Bentleigh hoped last season was meant to go. Sitting top of the table with five wins from six starts. The Greens had to wait 12 months but here we are. A 2-0 win over second-last Langwarrin at Kingston Heath has George Katsakis’ men primed for a premiership or promotion challenge. A-League great Leigh Broxham scored his second goal of the game, while Chris Droutsas bagged his first of the campaign just minutes after coming on as a substitute. A blockbuster clash with Caroline Springs George Cross now looms for the ladder-leader.

GEORGIES MOVING UP

Three wins on a trot and fourth* place, Caroline Springs is on the march. A 2-1 win over NPL relegated Manningham United at Pettys Reserve confirms George Cross as a potential promotion contender, now just three points off top spot. Luke Lofts scored his fifth goal of the campaign to give the visitors a 16th-minute lead and half-time advantage. However, Manningham hit back shortly after the break as Ben Everson bagged his eighth goal in the 56th minute. However, parity would last only a few minutes as Caroline Springs pushed again and Trent Skapetis pounced on the match-winner just after the hour-mark. A crunch clash with Bentleigh now looms for George Cross, while Manningham – which slipped to eighth – faces Bulleen. *Bullen Lions can move into fourth with a win on Monday night.

UNITED BACK ON FORM

After its winning streak ended last week, Western United bounced straight back to form with a 3-0 win over premiership and promotion rival Northcote City at Ironbark Fields on Sunday. Mark Leonard made it five goals in six outings, while Nick Koek bagged his first and, in his NPL season debut, Tobias Servin scored in a dream start. In a horror outing for Hercules, Zach Bates and Sam Warde were both shown red cards. The wins sees Western remain in second, a point behind leader Bentleigh, while Northcote slip to sixth on goal difference.

WHITTLESEA BREAKTHROUGH

There’s been no shortage of goal for promotion-winner Whittlesea United, in fact it has the third most goals so far this season. However, wins have been harder to come back with just one before a breakthrough performance against Nunawading City. The main issue has been defence, Hilalspor has conceded the second most in the competition. At Mahoneys Reserve on Friday night, they found a balance, scoring a 3-1 win. Ali Turgut and Lewis Shannon found the back of the net for the visitors, while City goalkeeper Dennys Martin scored an unfortunate own goal. Alex Kubenko scored to deny United a clean sheet but Kane O’Connor was sent off for Nunawading, added to a dirty day for the cellar-dwellers.

BOX HILL UPSET OF THE SEASON

Kudos Pythagoras. Across the top three flights of Victorian football, this will surely be one of the upsets of the season. Box Hill were sitting second last heading into Friday night’s clash with Brunswick Juventus at CB Smith Reserve. The Zebras were equal first. By the end of 90 minutes the underdogs were comprehensive 3-0 victors after a dominant second-half showing. Ruben Sanchez Marcano opened the scoring after a perfect through-ball from Agustin Casco. Nick Stefanidakis doubled the lead when he capitalised on Juventus keeper Liam Price’ howler to score from 35m out. Casco then sealed the three points with a sublime finish, winning the ball in midfield and audaciously chipping Price from well outside the box. The win sees Pythagoras jump up to ninth, while Juventus slip to third.

ROYALS GET IT DONE ON THE ROAD

After two wins on the trot, Springvale White Eagles were in good form and started strongly at Serbian Sports Centre, taking a half-time lead over Essendon Royals. Miki Gamo, converting a penalty, scored for the third game in a row. However, the visitors – with two wins and a draw in their past three – have also been travelling well and stormed home in the second half to claim all three points. Vincent Nicoletti – subbed on for an injured Phil Riccobene – kick-started the comeback minutes after the break, heading home from a corner. Springvale were awarded a second penalty but keeper Andre Russo made a clutch save to keep the Royals in game. Sebastian Lo Monaco then grabbed in match-winning opportunity with a strong run and finish under pressure. The win sees Essendon sit in second spot at the (almost) quarter-mark of the season.

TWO SIX-PACKS

A 3-3 draw is pretty rare, so to have two of them on the same day is pretty crazy. Boroondara-Carey had almost done enough to secure a critical three points on the road but a last-gasp penalty snatched a point for North Geelong at Elcho Park on Saturday. Jacob Colosimo, Levi Tarbotton and Tristan Patsiotis all scored for the Eagles. Angus Chapman bagged a brace for the Warriors and Ionut-Casian Anghel scored the late penalty. Later that night, Pascoe Vale and Goulburn Valley also shared the points in a nail-biting back-and-forth battle. Aydin Mustedanagic scored a double for the Rams, while Tom Barforosh also found the back of the net. Mangara Munguakonkha continued his strong form and Cailyn Trask and Callum Schorah also scored. The draws see North Geelong sit fourth and GV Suns fifth on the NPL2 ladder, while Pascoe Vale slides to 10th and Boroondara-Carey drop into the bottom two.

REDBACKS KEEP THE GOOD TIMES ROLLING

Just one loss and top spot in VPL2, Eltham Redbacks have produced an impressive opening six matches coming up from State League 1. The reigning South-East premier added Altona City to its victims on Friday night at Eltham North Reserve with a 2-0 win. After a tight first half saw the two teams go into the break level, the visitors soon broke the deadlock but not in the way they wanted. Goalkeeper Patrick Cristea scored an unfortunate own goal. A penalty from Billy Romas then sealed the three points. After finishing third last year, Altona City has had a solid start to 2025, sitting sixth with a 3-3 record.

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

A brace of Monday night games will close out the VPL1 round. Kingston City welcomes North Sunshine Eagles to The Grange, while Bulleen Lions hosts Brunswick City at The Veneto Club. Kingston and North Sunshine sit sixth and seventh with both teams looking to keep pace with the early-season leaders. Meanwhile, Bulleen can move back into fourth place with a win. Brunswick is just a point behind in seventh and can leap-frog their hosts into fifth with victory.