Hume City started its National Premier League season in the best possible way with a convincing 3-0 win over newly promoted Richmond on Saturday night.
Hume coach Louie Acevski was happy to take the win at Broadmeadows Valley Park after a less than ideal offseason.
After making the semi finals of the FFA Cup last season, Hume started the preseason later than most other clubs.
“It’s definitely been a quick and short offseason,” Acevski said.
“[The win over Richmond] was the perfect start and I still believe we are four to six weeks away from hitting our straps. Our fluency is not quite there.
“We need to work on how we play and gel together. That’s the only negative aspect at this point.
“But I can see us gelling really well together.”
In a sloppy first half, Hume City got two early goals to take control of the match.
“The first half was a typical round one match . . . both sides were sussing out each other,” Acevski said.
“It wasn’t really fluid from our side but we were still two goals up at half time.”
It was all Hume again in the second half.
“We took the game to them,” Acevski said. “We could have scored another two or three.”
Acevski was pleased with the performance of several of his new players, including second half scorer Hernan Espindola.
“He made a good assist and scored a good goal,” he said. “And Kofi Danning was really good on the right wing.”
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Shaun Timmins and Theo Markelis were the other scorers.
Markelis, a star for the club last season, came off the bench.
“Before round one we played a practice match against Altona Magic and won 7-2,” Acevski said.
“We decided to reward the boys who started in that game with a start in round one.
“We’ve aimed to get a lot more depth this year. We have at least two players for each position this season, which means everyone is battling for a spot.
“We need every player stepping up this season.”
The only negative for Hume was an injury to new recruit Daniel Visevic.
The club is awaiting scan results to see how much damage has been done to his shoulder.
