The newly-named Ballarat club produced an impressive opening half in its first outing in front of a home crowd. Coach Danny Gnjidic was stoked with the first half, but feared his side would not be rewarded on the scoreboard for its dominance.

However, a telling cross from Nelson Salvatore caused havoc for the visitors defense and Patrick Karras was the beneficiary, converting from close range in the 44^th minute.

Gnjidic was pleased with the sides improvement from its round one loss and spoke volumes of the first half in particular.

“The first half was fantastic, really pleasing. We controlled the game, created goal-scoring opportunities, (but) my concern was that if we went in at half-time with scores level it may impact on the boys’ belief – given how much domination they had in the first half. To get the goal right before half-time just lifted everyone,” Gnjidic said.

“It was definitely about putting the domination on the scoreboard, so I’m glad we at least got one – that was important. They got a lot of confidence out of the way they played in the first half, but they needed something to show for it.

“The improvement from last week was the focus and the concentration, so I’m rapt they got reward for effort today.”

Ballarat City will now travel to take on Northcote City which has won its opening two matches. Gnjidic said the group would enter the clash with confidence as it looks to build towards a 90-minute performance.

“Last week was an encouraging performance, in bits and pieces we played quite well. Today we put it together for a really good 45 minutes and then parts of the second half. It will take a little while to get a complete performance over 90 minutes, but today was another step in the right direction.

“That’ll be another test for us, but we go in with plenty of confidence and no reason not to believe we can’t come back with the result.”