By Josip Zilic
Its fans asked ‘make us dream’ and North Geelong Warriors answered in emphatic fashion with a 4-0 victory in an NPL1 promotion playoff against Richmond
With a large band of travelling supporters behind it North Geelong made an instant return to top flight soccer in Victoria and at the same time erasing the disappointment of 2015’s relegation.
“The boys were amazing,” coach Micky Colina said after the game.
“It’s a very special moment for the club. The fans were massive for the boys, too,”
It could have been a different story early on when Richmond’s Alex Caniglia provided a heart pounding moment catching Daniel Zilic off guard and hitting the post.
As the match settled the Warriors forward line began to give their opponents headaches with persistent runs into dangerous areas.
It was that pressure that lead to the opener on 15 minutes when Kene Eze shimmied into the area and was upended by Bryan Bran.
Matt Thorne stepped up to take the honours and opened the ledger.
The sides returned from the break with the scores at 1-0 and plenty to play for.
Richmond again was the early enforcer, Hamlet Armenian getting forward driving a low cross into the box that a retreating Darren Lewis managed to just angle over the bar.
However, like the first half it was danger man Eze who again gave his opponent a hard time, pivoting and flicking a ball in the box only for Birkhan Yurdakul to raise his arm to the ball and give away a penalty.
Thorne delivered again and slotted it perfectly to dent Richmond’s hopes.
If that didn’t put the contest to rest then the third certainly did.
On 60 minutes Josh Pugh darted down the left and sent an inch perfect cross for Michael Anderson to rise and head with precision into the top corner.
Michael Simms finished off the scoring and with it started celebrations with an injury time follow up to another Eze forward entry which was parried by Tony Foglia into Simms’ direction to neatly tuck away.
Captain Matt Townley said: “I can’t speak highly enough of the people we have, to bounce straight back up is exactly what we wanted as playing group.”
The sentiment was further echoed by Anderson.
“It’s hard to put into words right now, this club and the support you receive on and off the park is second to none,” he said.
“There’s not many places like North Geelong.”
