Altona North’s stunning come-from-behind 3-2 win over Gisborne in the Football Federation Victoria men’s state league 4 has been overshadowed by a knee injury to captain Lee Dore.
Dore went down clutching his knee in the dying stages of Saturday’s game at Duane Reserve and had to be stretchered off.
It will be a major blow for North, who are a perfect two wins from two starts, which Dore has been influential in as a midfielder.
North coach Alan Muscat is hoping for the best when Dore’s knee is assessed this week.
“He’ll get an MRI scan this week and hopefully results come back and it’s nothing too bad,” Muscat said.
“If he’s out, it will be a big loss for the football club.
“He’s the general of our midfield.”
Altona North spent all week working on nullifying Gisborne’s success at the set pieces.
Gisborne has proven lethal from the dead ball early in the season, while North’s clear deficiency in the lead up friendlies was its defence in those situations.
North could not translate what they worked on during the week into Saturday as they copped the first two goals of the match through set pieces.
“We spoke about our set pieces during the week,” Muscat said.
“It’s something we struggled with during the off season and something we’ve worked on and still keep trying to work on.
“Unfortunately the things we worked on during the week didn’t go to plan.”
Photo Gallery: Altona North vs Gisborne
Instead of rolling over and saying it is all too hard with a two-goal deficit, Altona North’s fighting qualities shone through.
North piled on three quick goals to take an unlikely 3-2 lead into the break.
“Hats off to the boys, after two goals they responded and got three goals before the break,” Muscat said.
“It showed good fighting spirit.”
Chris Swain was the architect of Altona North’s comeback.
The winger scored a hat-trick in quick time to send North on their way to victory.
“He scored the first goal through a bit of brilliance down the flank between himself and a couple of other players,” Muscat said.
“The second was a penalty and the third was a free kick.
“There was a bit of individual brilliance with two of the goals.”
Benjamin Bafwe, Ritchie Rossi and Elvir Hasanbegovic were the other standout performers across the midfield.
Aside from the set piece mishaps, Muscat felt like Altona North deserved all three points.
“I thought we controlled the game pretty well,” he said.
“In patches in the first half, they got their goals and had their tail up, but I think in open play we moved the ball very quick and had them on the ropes at certain times.”
Altona North will venture to winless Golden Plains for a Saturday night game in round three.
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