Three goals at home should be enough to win a game of football. On Friday night at Eltham North Reserve, it was not.
The Redbacks found themselves in early trouble against Western United and went in at the break trailing 1-3, a deficit that would have broken lesser sides. Billy Romas had Eltham’s first on the board inside the opening half hour, but Western’s three first-half goals meant the home side faced a long road back after the interval.
To their credit, they took it. Finn Diamond pulled a goal back early in the second half to make it 2-3 and give the night a pulse, and when Marcus Day struck in the 84th minute to close the gap to 3-4, a remarkable point looked possible. Western United had restored their two-goal cushion through Mark Leonard before that, and in the end it was the visitors’ fourth that proved decisive, the Redbacks running out of time on the comeback.
It is a tough one to take at The Web, and it leaves Eltham eighth in VPL Men 1 on 25 points. The character shown in the second half is not in question, three goals against a side that came to defend a lead is no small thing, but the damage done in that opening period was simply too much to overturn. The Redbacks have shown all season they belong at this level; this was a night where the margins went against them.