The fixture the whole division had circled arrived at The Web on Friday night, and the Redbacks answered it the way leaders do, beating Bundoora United 4-2 and handing the visitors their first defeat of the season.
Whatever nerves come with a top-of-the-table clash, Isobel Berks does not appear to feel them. The English winger struck twice inside the opening 20 minutes, her second brace in as many home games against top-half opposition, and before Bundoora had settled into the contest they were chasing it. Berks has been the form player of this VPL Women season and on the biggest night of the year she was again the difference, giving a defence that had conceded just 16 goals all season two problems it never solved.
Bundoora arrived unbeaten through 15 rounds and showed why after the break. MelindaJ Barbieri pulled one back just before the hour and the visitors carried real threat through the middle stages of the half, but the response was the mark of this Eltham side. Paige Foa restored the two-goal buffer with 20 minutes to play, and when Ally Giovino added the fourth late on, the night was decided. Sasha Daskalovska’s stoppage-time goal for Bundoora changed the scoreline rather than the story. Just as telling was the other end of the contest, where Addison Steiner, the league’s runaway top scorer with 24 goals coming into the night, was held without one when it mattered most.
The maths now reads emphatically in red and black. Eltham sit top on 40 points from 17 matches, seven clear of second-placed Bundoora, who hold a game in hand, with Southern United a point further back. One defeat all season, a goal difference of plus 36 that nobody in the division can approach, and now a direct win over the closest challenger. The title is not decided in July, but nights like Friday are the ones a premiership is built on.
There is no time to admire the view. The Redbacks travel to CB Smith Reserve on Friday night to face Brunswick Juventus, the side that inflicted Eltham’s only league defeat of the season back in April. A response to that result, on the road, would make a big statement even louder.
Up the ‘Backs.