Home versus Sunbury, 1pm and 3 pm Ko

The first pre season game for the year and a very entertaining game resulted in a 2-2 draw. Valley looked good and defended well against a strong looking forward line. The game gave Rob Ardesi the chance to look at his squad and he was probably quite happy with what he saw. Home game this weekend versus Sunbury, 1pm reserves and 3 pm seniors.

With pre season under way under the watchful eye of Seniors Coach Rob Ardesi, the Valley have a number of upcoming matches as below:-

Sat 11th Feb Home versus Clifton Hill,
Reserves 1pm KO and Seniors 3pm KO.

Sat 18th Feb Home v Sunbury,
Reserves 1 pm KO and Seniors 3pm KO.

Sat 25th Feb , Home v South Yarra,
Reserves KO 1pm and Seniors KO 3pm.

Sturday 3rd March Home v Pascoe Vale,
Reserves 1pm KO and Seniors 3pm KO.

Saturday 10th March Home v Old Scotch,
Reserves 1pm KO and Seniors 3pm KO.

Valley will be participating in FFV organised pre season knock out tournament, details to follow.

Following on from AGM, new Committee is in place for 2012, details to be posted soon. Our senior coach for 2012 will indeed be Rob Ardesi who took over midway through 2011. Rob has advised that pre season training will commence Jan 16th, 630pm at Partingtons Flat Soccer Ground, Kalparrin Ave, Greensborough.

After some speculation, it has been confirmed by FFV that Valley will remain in State 2 South East for 2012 ( some speculation we would be moved to North West )

After a tumultuous week, a week which saw Valley and Senior Coach Goran Runje part ways, the good times returned to Partingtons Flat today. Former player, Rob Ardesi was appointed Senior Coach and took charge of his first game against newly promoted Noble Park United. In the first game of the season, the two teams played out a score draw, but Noble Park had been playing well recently.

Perhaps we could expect the players to lift for Robbie , however, it was Noble Park who went into the half time break with a 1-0 lead. End of story, the Valley boys came out fired up and scored a couple of quick goals to put themselves ahead, Noble Park were a devastated team and started arguing with each other. With the opposition in disarray, the Valley boys pushed on to score another 2 goals and run out comprehensive winners, 4-1. Goals came from A Hammer (2), S Clarke and T Gavran.

Yes, one win doesn’t mean too much, but there was a great feeling at Partingtons today, a sense that the Valley had found its heart again ……… promotion is out of the question but it is more important that we secure safety in League 2,with the club looking to strengthen its squad and enjoy the second half of the year.

It was great to hear the Valley faithful in good voice today, the growl was loud and proud !!!!!

Unfortunately, the ressies ( very much under strength and with 2 of the thirds filling spots ) were unlucky to go down 1-0.

The coaching staff were faced with a real selection dilemma this week with so many players unavailable through injury and absence. Regular starters in Adam Raynes ( inj ), Ved Muratbegovic ( inj ) Anthony Hammer ( inj )and Mario Ladjnak ( absent) were all missing, leaving the bare bones to work with. In fact, regular goalkeeper Gavin Watson played centre forward today and it must be said, acquitted himself quite nicely. However, the star today was Elias Tzintzas who scored a hat trick and put the Valley in a winning position. 2-1 up at half time, Elias scored a third and gave us a 3-1 lead. Thats where it ended. A further injury when Kevin Unwin came off upset the balance and Malvern clawed their way back into the game. When they levelled at 3-3 it was clear they were buoyed and desperate to take advantage, which they did when they score a 4th and winning goal. Very upsetting to lose in this manner but early signs were good.

The reserves played out yet another ( 0-0 ) draw. The young lads need to start turning these draws into wins. The seniors, well, thank God for the bye next week which may allow some injuries to heal and we get something nearer a full strength squad back for our trip to Box Hill in 2 weeks.

Nothing much to say about this one other than the fact the boys were able to keep a clean sheet. Clearly injuries to key players is affecting the team and the free scoring play at the start of the season has dried up.
A tough home match next week when we play host to Malvern City.

Once again , the reserves came away with a share of the points after a 1 -1 draw.

What can you say, for 40 minutes this was a good tight encounter. We knew it would be a tough match but at 0-0 approaching half time the boys were looking OK. Then Bang!!!! In quick succession and on either side of the half time break, Dandy broke the deadlock and put 3 quick goals on the board …… contest over. A final scoreline of 6 -0 really quite embarrassing and I dare say even Dandenong would be surprised by final score. Put this one behind us and move forward to Rond 8 and a home game against Heatherton.

The reserves were more successful, playing with 10 men for much of the game the ressies came away with a 2-2 draw.

ROUND 5 KNOX CITY 2 DIAMOND VALLEY 2
A share of the points against Knox was probably disappointing, given that Knox were sitting bottom of the ladder. The Valley were 2-1 up at half time courtesy of 2 goals from our new scoring sensation, Dejan Milevski. However, Knox were able to level in the second half and it finished 2 – 2.

The reserves had a day they would want to forget, going down 4 – 1 , a performance which really was not acceptable.

ROUND 6 DIAMOND VALLEY 2 MORWELL PEGASUS 1
The game today was under some doubt due to some recent heavy rain which left the ground a bit heavy, with a few puddles to contend with. Fair to say, Morwell started well and were on top until the 32nd minute when, against the run of play, David Gogoasa stepped up and struck a sweet shot from 20 yards which curled into the net with the Pegs goalkeeper stranded. 1-0 to the Valley at half time and the boys doubled their lead in the 49th minute when Tomi Gavran found the back of the net with a belter of a shot. Morwell continued to press the Valley defence and , as in the first half, created plenty of opportunities but couldn’t find the net . Things changed in the 58th minute when Morwell pulled one back, but try as they might , they just couldn’t get an equaliser. Full credit to Gavin “Winker” Watson in goal for the Valley. Winker made several excellent saves to deny the Pegs, and repeated his heroics at Doncaster when he dived low to his right to save yet another penalty. Morwells cause was not helped when Simon Webster was red carded in the 79th minute when he upended Elias Tzintzas at the edge of the box.
Another tough day at the office but Valley were relieved to bag the 3 points.

After a terrible performance at Knox last week, the ressies were keen to show improvement today. And show improvement they did. Valley were 4-1 up at half time thanks to goals from Luke Dyt ( again, super captain ) and Supreet Singh returning from injury chipping in with 2 and our French import Jerome Taraska also getting on the scoreboard. However, Morwell rejigged their set up in the second half, and Valley were forced to make a number of changes, this let Morwell back into the game and in the end the Valley scraped home 4-3. It could have been a lot different if the boys had put away half the chances they created, including a missed penalty. It was good however, to watch Steve Clark marshall the younger boys to a victory, and to see Ante Bilic pull the Valley shirt on after injury and poor health.

Onwards and upwards , its off to top of the ladder Dandy City next week …….. CARN THE VALLEY !!!!!!!!!

SENIORS
DIAMOND VALLEY 2 v CASEY COMETS 1

RESERVES
DIAMOND VALLEY 2 v CASEY COMETS 1

As always, this encounter with Casey Comets was as tough as we have come to expect against our State 2 opponents. The first half was a dog versus dog affair which produced no goal. However, the Valley came out hungry in the second half and it was Dejan Milevski who opened the scoring in 47th minute to give Valley the lead. Elias Tzintzas found the net a few minutes later to give Valley a 2 goal lead. It’s good to see Elias and Dejan scoring regularly and helping the team maintain their unbeaten record. When Casey were reduced to 10 men courtesy of a red card, Valley would have thought it would be easy enough to play the game out and claim the points. However, Casey made a couple of changes and enjoyed some good forward pressure with some assistance from the whistle happy referee. The pressure paid off when they pulled one goal back in the 85th minute. All of a sudden it was Valley on the back foot and hoping for the final whistle……….there were several minutes of injury time and a number of free kicks awarded to Casey around the 18 yard line made for a tense finish.

It was good to see our new imports get their chance this week ….Christian Stark ( Germany ) and Jerome Taraska ( France ) pulled on the Navy blue for the first time.

Our reserves, under the guidance of Mark Bunce, maintained their recent vein of good form when they beat Casey 2 – 1 with the goals coming from Luke Dyt and Phil Mitrov. Well done lads and it was great to see Alan Mclure back in the navy blue and playing well. It should be noted that Casey were top of the ladder which gives greater meaning to this victory.

That said, this week we are off to Knox who always produce a good reserve side and indeed were Champions last season ….. however, the Valley boys did beat them on their own patch last year so we should go with confidence.

In the end, the Valley did maintain their unbeaten record and moved up a couple of spots on the ladder.

Next week we are away at Knox City where we hope to maintain our recent form.