A LATE penalty arrested Melton’s three-game losing streak, earning the side a 2-2 draw with Melbourne Tornado and keeping it on the coattails of the promotion contender in FFV provisional league 3 NW.
Chris Briggs held his nerve to convert from the penalty spot after a push with three minutes to go, earning the Phoenix a chance for redemption at Newmarket Reserve.
Melton is winless from five games and has
picked up just two points of a possible 15,
slipping from contention for the top two in the past month.
The draw prevented Tornado from further extending the gap to the top four, with Phoenix fifth on 17 points behind Tornado (4, 22), Bundoora United (3, 23) and with the promotion places held by Heidelberg Stars (2, 26) and Darebin United (1, 29).
The weekend match saw Melton finish a stretch playing against the top sides and it will not face a team above it on the table until September 1.
“There’s a lot of football to be played and having now seen everyone we don’t have anyone to fear,” Melton coach Danny Gnjidic said.
“With that said, we can’t afford to do much wrong if we want to finish top two.
“We’ve come up against some better quality opposition with the top four sides in the past four games and only picked up the one point.
“But we’ve been competitive and more than held our own.”
Briggs scored both goals for Melton, the first just before half-time after Tornado opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
“Tornado struck again early in the second half.
“It’s fair to say both goals were against the run of play,” Gnjidic said.
“We had a shout for a penalty maybe 15 minutes earlier that the referee didn’t give, and had a couple of other chances that went wide.
” It was hard for us to create anything of substance given the muddy conditions.”
Prior to the transfer deadline closing Melton has acquired three defensive players – Simon Vasconcelo and Daniel Walker from Westvale and Steve McLelland from Sunbury United.
Melton’s women remain safely mid-table after dismissing ninth-placed Old Carey 3-0 on Sunday.
Goalsscored by Catherine Zajarski, Melissa Blair and Michelle Williamson ensured that Melton held on to sixth position on the competition table.
The Phoenix, on 14 points, is four behind fifth-placed Bulleen Lions and two ahead of seventh-placed Sunshine George Cross.
