As far as debuts go, not many are as thrilling as Brandon Lauton's, who made his first A-League start for Melbourne Victory on Saturday.
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Unfortunately for the 19-year-old, he was on the losing end of a remarkable comeback in which Western United announced itself as a force in its inaugural A-League season.
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS
The Ballarat junior played 79 minutes in the match which saw Western United erase a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 in front of 21,000 fans at Marvel Stadium.
United forward Scott McDonald was the hero after his goal in the 51st minute secured bragging rights for the newcomers to propel them to fourth on the competition ladder.
"If you were neutral it would have been a great game to watch," Lauton told The Courier after the match.
"If you were a Western United fan, even better, but as a Victory fan it would have been quite hard."
Victory looked certain to run away with the contest after pouncing on two mistakes to go up 2-0 in the opening stages.
Victory captain Ola Toivonen capitalised off an intercept from teammate Leigh Broxham to steer the ball into the bottom corner in the sixth minute. Less than two moments later the home-side struck again off the boot of Kristijan Dobras.
United fought their way back into the game when a shallow clearance fell in front of Alessandro Diamanti who found the back of the net with a long-range strike.
The equaliser came in the 29th minute when Besart Berisha forced the ball across the line on the back of a well-placed cross from Josh Risdon.
United took the lead six minutes into the second-half when McDonald spun around around his defender to drive the ball into the left-hand corner.
Western United defended to stay alive as the half progressed, clearing the ball off a Victory set-piece in the final minute to steal the win.
Despite the loss, Lauton said it was special to run out in front of his home fans.
"It was the first time I'd played in an A-League match in front of my home crowd so it was fantastic," he said.
"The atmosphere was really good, when we scored the crowd went ballistic so it was nice to be part of that."
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