Pascoe Vale continues to go from strength to strength following its convincing 4-2 win over Hume City – its fifth successive victory - in a volatile clash at Hosken Reserve on Friday night.

The match started off at a blistering pace, with both sides eager to play.

Davey van’t Schip and Joseph Youssef were linking up superbly for Pascoe Vale, while their teammates Jonathan Voulgaris and Luca Santilli worked well in tandem.

It was no surprise that Vitale Ferrante’s men stunned a sluggish Hume by scoring within four minutes of kick-off.

Voulgaris’ pinpoint in-swinging free kick came off the hand of Kliment Taseski, which gave the referee no option but to point to the spot.

Tomislav Milardovic stepped up to stroke the ball home.

The hosts wasted no time adding to their lead thanks mainly to a darting run by the ever-present Voulgaris.

The lively forward’s drilling ball across goal picked out Luca Santilli, who made no mistake to tap the ball in from point-blank range in the 10th minute.

Five minutes had barely elapsed before Youssef dinked over a ball to van’t Schip.

The rangy forward sprung the offside trap to find himself one on one with Chris Oldfield prior to calmly lifting over the ‘keeper and into the net.

To Hume City’s credit, it remained positive despite being up against it and knocked the ball around well without being able to properly trouble the Pascoe Vale backline until the second period.

But it was to go from bad to worse for Hume after the restart, thanks to tremendous work from Paco’s attacking trio.

Marco Santilli’s splitting ball found Voulgaris down the right side. His cross picked out Luca Santilli, who hammered the ball into the net to notch up his brace and put the home side into dreamland.

Voulgaris was shown a second yellow card and subsequently sent off just three minutes later, as Hume rallied and embarked on a fightback.

Eli Luttmer’s clip brought down Christopher Cristaldo in the area as he hurtled towards goal. Huem striker Richie Carzdozo then coolly tucked the resulting penalty away with aplomb.

Hume continued its surge on the hour mark.

36-year-old John Sapazovski climbed high to slam a header beyond Stefaan Sardelic from a corner to cut the margin even further and give Hume the momentum heading into the final half-hour.

Pascoe Vale managed to steady the ship though and hold on to extend its winning run to five games.

Chances were endless at either end, but it was Paco’s lightning start that ultimately did the damage.
Its coach Vitale Ferrante was delighted with yet another win.

“The boys were really up for it tonight,” Ferrante said.

“Considering we’d come off four straight wins, I wanted to see how the boys would respond and they took it with both hands.”

Hume City coach Lou Acevski bemoaned his side’s horrendous start.

“We gifted them three goals in the first 15 minutes and if you give that to any team, it’s a battle after that,” Acevski said.

“I was happier with the second half. The boys came out and showed some character which was the positive thing for us.”

Acevski will be hoping that his men can pick up where they left off against Werribee City in Round 15, while Pascoe Vale will be looking for its sixth win on the trot away to Melbourne Knights.

MATCH DETAILS

Pascoe Vale 4 (Milardovic pen. 4’, Luca Santilli 10’ 48’, van’t Schip 16’) defeated Hume City 2 (Cardozo pen. 50’, Sapazovski 62’) at Hosken Reserve [HT: 3-0]

Pascoe Vale: 1. Stefaan SARDELIC, 2. Adrian TALARICO, 3. Nathen MEGIC, 4. Tomislav MILADORVIC, 7. Luca SANTILLI (19. Lindsey HENDERSON 55’), 8. Joseph YOUSSEF, 10. Davey VAN’T SCHIP (23. Melvin BECKETT 78’), 11. Jonathan VOULGARIS, 14. Alvaro CARRILLO, 12. Eli LUTTMER, 16. Marco SANTILLI (13. Matthew LAZARIDES 89’).

Unused subs: 18. Vlad KHAMEEES.

Yellow cards: Talarico (45’), Voulgaris (47’, 51’)

Red cards: Voulgaris (51’)

Hume City: 1. Chris OLDFIELD, 17. Aaron TURNER, 28. Matthew HENNESSEY, 5. Petar FRANJIC. 18. John STOJCEVSKI, 13. Shane REXHEPI (8. Nikos JACKSON-TSEREXIDIS 85’), 10. Richie CARDOZO, 11. Kliment TASESKI, 24. Jeremy WALKER, 9. Anthony PROIA, 23. Christopher CRISTALDO.

Unused subs: 14. Baki EFE, 7. Ali TURGUT, 44. John SAPAZOVSKI, 20. Evan AKVANDRON.

Yellow cards: Cardozo (23’), Proia (42’), Turner (68’)

Red cards: Nil

Image credit: Jason Heidrich Photography