Sunbury United’s season is slowly getting back on track with a second straight win in FFV state league 3 north-west.
Among the bottom teams in the division, United had just one win from its first nine games. After a victory against Melbourne City last weekend, United faced bottom side Melbourne University on Saturday.
In a must win game, United was never challenged winning 4-1.
Joe Cavoli, promoted from the reserves, opened the scoring in the 16th minutes and when he scored his second in the 29th minute, United doubled the lead.
It was a hat trick for Cavoli when he scored his third in the 50th minute before Djafari Mwarabu scored United’s fourth in the 85th minute.
University scored a consultation goal in the 90th minute.
Heading into the game, director of football operations’ Greg Czapnik said the game was the most important game of the season for the club.
“You don’t want to finish in the bottom three,” he said. “A win would make the gap even bigger on the bottom couple of sides and automatic relegation. A loss would mean the season would border on the critical stage.
“This club has gone through some dire times. We can’t afford to go down another division.”
Czapnik said while the results showed a 3-1-7 record, it could have been much different.
The one area United has struggled in is its ability to convert opportunities.
“We need to put our chances away,” he said. “There’s only two games we deserved to lose. Realistically if you don’t put the chances away it destroys you and puts the pressure back on the defenders.
“You can look at the number of games we’ve thrown away.”
With 11 games left, United sits 10th on the ladder but is now only two points behind Heidelberg Stars and out of possible relegation. The bottom two sides are relegated while the third bottom side faces a play off to survive.
United’s next match is against third placed Williamstown.
In state league 5 west, Gisborne’s good form continued with a 4-1 win against Maidstone United.
Kyneton District’s got its first points of the season with a 1-1 draw with Moonee Valley Knights.
