SOCCER WRAP | City clears out on top with late win

Early in the contest it looked like City would be far too polished for their Western Suburbs rivals opening up a 2-0 lead at the break, but the visiting team fought back hard early in the second half, changing up their game plan and finding a few holes in the City defence to level up the game.

The match again changed complexion in the 60^th minute when City's Daniel Angeleski and Western Suburbs' John Herron were both red carded, reducing the contest to 10 a side.

It was substitute Xagai Douhadii who finally broke the deadlock ion the 80^th minute before City's best on the day, youngster Max Bedggood iced the game with the last kick of the contest.

Playing coach Michael Trigger said he was thrilled to walk away with maximum points after a hard-fought game.

"It was an interesting game, it was good to score those two late goals," he said. "It was a really weird game, 10-10 for 30 or 40 minutes which is a bit unusual.

"They came out more direct in the second half, scored from a penalty and also from a long throw which is also a bit unusual.

"They threw their goal keeper up at the end, but we were able to clear it and young Max Bedggood got the ball and basically went the length of the pitch into an open net on the last kick."

Four wins from four starts for Ballarat City to start the year, including two Dockerty Cup wins, but the big test will come over the next month with three league and one cup match all on the road.

"It's a big month and it will be a different challenge for us," Trigger said. "All four competitive games we've played have been tough contests, so it gives me confidence in our resilience to cope with setbacks and get back on with it.

"We're going to have be resilient to play in tough places coming up."

The Sebastopol Vikings have kept a clean sheet in a dominant 3-0 victory over one of their State League 3 arch rivals Point Cook in an outstanding home display.

Goals from Laurence Tombe, Stewart Maylett and Pat Karras proved to be the different in a big round two win for the Vikings, taking them to four points on the season after an opening round draw.

The Vikings controlled the match from the outset with two first half goals before finishing off the contest in style. A raft of substitutions late in the contest enabled them to keep a clean sheet which would be pleasing to coach Michael Busija.

Having been eliminated from the Dockerty Cup, the Vikings can focus solely on their league ambitions for the season from here and will play a third successive home game next weekend when they clash with Diamond Valley. Diamond Valley has picked up just one point so far this season.

It was a tough day at the office for Ballarat SC, going down 6-1 at the hands of the Deakin University on Saturday.

A three-minute hat-track by Deakin University attacker Isaga Killimbe right at the end of the first half broke the game open. It was just those few moments of skill that ultimately separated the two sides after Ballarat has made a solid start to the contest at that point of the match.

Deakin's Sam Wyeth netted a penalty before Danny Aitula and Brenton Rees scored their first goals for the club as the home side put their foot down in the second half to record a big win.

Ballarat needs to regroup quickly as it hunts its first win of the season, concerning will be the leaky defence which has so far conceded 11 goals in the first two matches. It doesn't get any easier from here with an away trip to face Maidstone United next weekend.