A John Buceto brace has helped Melbourne Victory move into second spot on the National Youth League ladder with a 3-0 win over Perth Glory.
A John Buceto brace has helped Melbourne Victory move into second spot on the National Youth League ladder with a 3-0 win over Perth Glory at Intiga Stadium on Sunday.
Buceto opened the scoring in the 42nd-minute when he was allowed to run onto a through ball that cut the middle of the Perth defence open and he rolled home past Lewis Italiano.
Buceto’s second came five minutes into the second-half when he buried a cross from 15 yards and substitute Luc Jeggo’s 66th-minute goal put the result beyond doubt.
In an error-ridden first-half, it was Melbourne who pressed up the pitch early and had the ball in their attacking third, which caused mistakes in the Perth defence.
Goalkeeper Italiano almost succumbed to the pressure when he mis-kicked a back pass and the ball squirmed off the side of his boot and rolled dangerously across the face of goal.
Perth began to work their way into the match and had a couple of chances of their own towards the end of the first-half.
Firstly, Ndumba Makeche cut in from the left, but blasted his shot over the bar with two open teammates in the box.
Regular first-team substitute Chris Harold almost played through Adrian Zahra with a probing ball between two Victory defenders, but Lawrence Thomas was quickly off his line to clear for the Melbournians.
An errant Nicholas Ansell backpass allowed Makeche to get on the end of it but Thomas again was quick to come out and block the shot.
Perth failed to put any sort of sustained pressure on the Melbourne defence in the second-half, and the defeat sees them sit second bottom of the NYL standings, ahead of only the AIS.
Perth Glory 0
Melbourne Victory 3 (Buceto 42, 50, Luc Jeggo 66)
Perth Glory: 1. Lewis Italiano (GK) (16. Jordan Franken 63), 2. Matthew Davies, 4. Ryan Lowry (c), 5. Riley Woodcock, 6. Brandon O’Neill, 7. Adrian Zahra, 8. Lawrence Shuruma (12. Kearyn Baccus 59), 9. Ndumba Makeche, 10. Jesse Makarounas, 11. Chris Harold (15. Borbor Sam 45), 13. Storm Roux (14. Blamo Quaqua 61).
Melbourne Victory: 1. Lawrence Thomas (GK) (20. Luke Radonich 81), 2. Matthew Foshini, 3. Petar Franjic (13. Conor Pain 63),, 4. Nicholas Ansell, 5. Dylan Murnane, 6. Space Pilevski (12. Luc Jeggo 59), 7. Christopher Christaldo, 8. James Jeggo, 9. Luke O’Dea (c), 10. Theodore Markelis (14. Kwabena Boahene 63), 11. John Buceto
