By Tara Murray
Hume City was left to rue a slow start against Bentleigh Greens on Friday night, as Hume slipped to a second straight loss in National Premier League.
For the first time this season, Hume conceded the first goal of the game.
While doing plenty of attacking and having some opportunities, Hume slipped even further behind when the Greens scored their second goal in the 60th minute.
That would be the final score, with the Greens winning 2-0.
Hume coach Nick Hegarty said hsi players showed some good signs, but weren’t able to score.
He said they needed to attack the Greens earlier in the match and gave them too much respect.
“Bentleigh is one of the hardest fixtures in the competition,” Hegarty said. “They are quality team and they’ve been working hard the last few years.
“We put in a slow 30 minutes before we started to produce. We were slow off the mark and made to pay.
“Even when they scored, it was through a lucky own goal to put them in front.
“We tweaked a few things and the game could have gone either way.”
The loss takes Hume’s record to 2-1-2 after five rounds.
Despite the weekend loss, Hegarty said he was pleased with where things sat at this point for his team.
“We had a tough five-game period to start the season,” he said.
“We wanted to put in performances so the players understood what they are capable of as a team.
“We want to get better and keep improving.”
Hegarty said the next group of games would also be challenging, with a match up against Dandenong City this weekend.
“Every game in our league is tough,” he said.
“We conceded the first goal on Friday after having scored first in the other games.
“We don’t want that to happen again. We want to control the momentum from early on.
“We’ll look to take home the points and cement our spot in a finals spot.”
In NPL 2 west, winless Whittlesea Ranges continues to struggle.
The Ranges lost to Epping Stadium co-tennant Melbourne Victory 4-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Victory led 4-0 before Ranges got two consolation goals through Andrew Doig and Anthony Taranto.
MORE NPL NEWS
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/solid-defence-sees-green-gully-through/
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/melbourne-knights-crusade/
