Manningham United secures its first NPL Victoria win against Dandenong Thunder

In its first home match of the season, Manningham United treated its fans to a history-making day, rallying to claim a first NPL Victoria victory.

Manningham United claims its first NPL win. Picture: Lydia Morelli

History was made at Pettys Reserve on Saturday.

In its first NPL Victoria home match, Manningham United claimed its first top-flight win with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Dandenong Thunder.

Chris Theodorakpoulos was the hero, bagging both goals.

After a difficult NPL debut, suffering a 3-0 loss to Oakleigh, it was the perfect response from the Blues.

Coach George Karkaletsis said it was an important game for the club and his players stepped up accordingly.

Manningham United juniors support their team. Picture: Lydia Morelli

“The whole club was excited and happy, we had a lot of support from our fans and there was good travelling support from Dandenong as well,” Karkaletsis said.

“It was just lovely to get our first win and make our ground a fortress.

“The boys have been up for it both weeks but I think (on Saturday) they realised how important the game was and credit to them in the second half, the came out and dug deep to get the result.”

Thunder took an early lead after to an eye-catching Birkan Kirdar free-kick from outside the penalty area.

However, United were level thanks to a free-kick of their own.

Theodorakopoulos floated the ball in from 35m out and a deflection off a Thunder defender sent it into the back of the net.

If the first goal was fortuitous, there was nothing lucky about the winner.

As Dandenong attempted to play out from the back, Theodorakopoulos pounced on a heavy touch from Aidan Edwards, stealing the ball on the edge of the area and fired past Pierce Clark.

52:16: GOAL! Manningham United Blues score to make it MUFC 2 : DTFC 1.

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“Quite surprisingly, in the second half, they decided to play out from the back,” Karkaletsis said.

“We identified it early and said to press and press and Chris is a real terrier.

“He’s played the level before, which is why he was an important signing for us, coming from Bentleigh and before that Avondale – he just has that X-factor.

Despite going a goal down, Karkaletsis said there was never any panic.

“I thought we were in control and then they had a free-kick from outside the box, it was a really well-taken goal,” he said.

“I said to the guys at half-time they’d shown really good character to come back after going down instead of thinking ‘here we go again’.

“We felt comfortable on the bench to be honest, I thought we dominated play and felt we were always going to get a goal or two back.

“Then the game opened up and we could have got another couple to be fair, we had some good opportunities we didn’t take later in the game.”

After 20 minutes in Round 1, star striker Ben Everson played the first half as he works back up to full fitness from an injury in pre-season.

Karkaletsis hopes he’ll be ready for a full 90 against Green Gully next week.

Meanwhile, the coach was full of praise for international signing Junya Kada after a strong performance in the heart of midfield.

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“Junya made an error for the first goal, it was a tactical thing we’d been working on during the week that didn’t pay off, and I had a go at him and his reaction was amazing,” Karkaletsis said.

“When it got really tough in the second half, after we went 2-1 up Dandenong had a lot of possession, and in that period Junya was outstanding with his tackling.

“He’s a very good ball player but people don’t realise how good a defensive player he is as well.”

Elsewhere, there were wins for fellow promotion-winner Dandenong City, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and Hume City, while Heidelberg and Oakleigh drew 1-1.