You know that moment, you’re at a party, it’s loud and there’s a good vibe – then someone turns the music off.
The fizz goes out of the room in an instant, until someone yells out, “Turn the music back on”, and the beat slowly returns.
That was the kind of feeling Altona City experienced for a fleeting moment during its 50th anniversary celebrations on Saturday night.
Hoppers Crossing came to town, pulled the plug out on the jukebox and returned home with a 2-1 win, but even that couldn’t stop a party that was 50 years in the making.
“I’ll go on record and say it was probably the worst performance I’ve seen from an Altona City team in 12 months,” City coach Sam Borg said.
“But it [the defeat] didn’t at all take away from the events of the night. The night was a success and it was fantastic to see over 1000 people at the ground.”
City was desperately undermanned and it showed.
Five first-teamers were unavailable, including captain Ross Walliss.
Still, City tried hard and had parity at 1-1 at the break.
But in its haste to find a match-winning goal for supporters, City conceded at the other end with 10 minutes to go.
“In all fairness, they were the better team on the night and probably deserved to win,” Borg said.
“We didn’t perform to what I expected and we got what we deserved in the end. It was all rushed play from us; it was ordinary.”
City will be at near-full strength for its FFV state league 3 north-west second round clash with North City Lions away on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, FC Williamstown was singing loud after a 3-0 season-opening win over Western Eagles at JT Gray Reserve.
In state league 1, a hugely anticipated local derby saw Altona Magic romp to a 3-1 win over co-tenant Altona East Phoenix at Paisley Park.
Paul Harvey scored a double for the Magic.
In state league 2, Yarraville got off to a flying start with 3-0 win over Westvale at McIvor Reserve.
Keith Dunne hit the back of the net twice for the Glory.
In a state league 4 goal feast, Melbourne City and Sebastopol Vikings divided six goals down the middle in a 3-3 draw; Laverton Park lost a five-goal thriller 3-2 to Keilor Wolves; and Altona North drew blanks in a 4-0 loss to Melton Phoenix.
