The McDonald’s Reds beat a quality Melbourne City Youth outfit 2-0 in round nine of the National Premier Leagues Victoria One season in greasy conditions at Morshead Park on Friday night.

The match was preceded by a broadcast of the Last Post and a minute’s silence in honour of Anzac Day.

When play commenced, Ballarat quickly put City to the sword with its trademark pressure.

Form duo Michael Trigger and Dom Swinton combined yet again to score the Reds’ first goal just five minutes in when Trigger intercepted a Melbourne pass and flicked the ball to Swinton for an easy put away, just metres out. Plenty of chances followed for the Reds, with Simon Murphy and Shaun Romein both failing to put the finishing touches on several quality passages of play.

Swinton excited the Reds faithful again at the 32-minute mark when he chanced his leg from more than 30 metres out, only to be denied by the fingertips of City’s keeper.

Eventually, Trigger broke through for a goal of his own at the 41-minute mark in what was arguably the best passage of play in Ballarat’s season to date.

The bullocking attacker got on the end of a long Callum Ferguson pass and embarked on a 40-metre run down the left wing before outmuscling and outwitting his opponent and City’s keeper to blast the ball in the top left corner of the net.

Ballarat retained its 2-0 lead into the break, but was put under immediate City pressure on the restart.

City worked hard to gain the ascendancy in the closing stanza, but the stringent Ballarat defence limited the visitors to only half chances as they tried desperately to apply some scoreboard pressure.

Aaron Romein stood up in the final stages with several big saves.

michael.pollock@fairfaxmedia.com.au

MATCH DETAILS

BALLARAT RED DEVILS 2 d MELBOURNE CITY YOUTH 0