W-League: Melbourne City continue winning streak with 4-0 win over Melbourne Victory

THERE is no stopping Melbourne City’s all-conquering women’s team, who maintained their perfect W-League start with a 4-0 derby rout of Melbourne Victory on Sunday.

W-League derby between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City at the David Barro Stadium, Bulleen, December 5, Melbourne Australia. Melbourne City's Jennifer Beattie headers in the opener in the first half. Picture : George Salpigtidis

THERE is no stopping Melbourne City’s all-conquering women’s team, who maintained their perfect W-League start with a 4-0 derby rout of Melbourne Victory on Sunday.

City is now seven from seven in its debut season.

The Manchester City-backed club wasn’t at full strength when it defeated Victory 2-1 in Round 2, but definitely was on Sunday in front of 753 fans at the Veneto Club in Bulleen.

And it showed.

Jennifer Beattie opened the scoring in the 35th minute after a Kim Little corner, a goal that was coming given City had spent the majority of the half camped in bottom-placed Victory’s defensive third.

Matildas striker Larissa Crummer sent a scare through the City camp when she went down clutching her left knee early in the second half, but was soon up to double the margin in the 50th minute.

Crummer had a brace by the 72nd minute after poking home a neat square ball from Lisa De Vanna, before Little completed the rout in the 79th.

In yet another poor look for the sport, Sunday’s game was only moved from Kingston Heath Soccer Complex on Friday after City officials inspected the ground and alerted Football Federation Australia to the shoddy state of the Bentleigh pitch.

Bulleen’s pitch is synthetic — which made things even more uncomfortable in Sunday’s heat — and has also had a bad track record when it comes to injuries.

City coach Joe Montermurro said he was disappointed by the last-minute switch.

“It’s just the message that it sends,” Montemurro said.

“We’re trying to keep a level of professionalism in the game and then all of a sudden there’s venue changes and pretty dramatic venue changes too because of the change in surface.

“It’s just about getting the protocols and processes right, getting someone out there during the week to make sure the ground is good so there’s no issues at 5pm on a Friday night.”

Despite the scoreline, Victory coach David Edmondson was full of praise for his young team that contained two 16-year-olds and two 15-year-olds.

“For the majority of the time we did what we’d planned to do,” Edmondson said.

“They scored three goals on the counter. When we’re playing against the best team in the league and some of the best players in the world, we said we were going to go out and make things difficult for them and I think we did that.

“Their goals were coming on the back of our best bits of possession, which we knew could happen.”

Originally published as W-League: Melbourne City continue winning streak with 4-0 win over Melbourne Victory