Sharpshooter Chris Coleman provided the ammunition in Altona’s vital 3-2 win over local rivals Footscray in the Hockey Victoria men’s premier league at Grant Reserve on Saturday.
The set piece specialist produced two searing goals from short corners to be the catalyst for the Seagulls in a crucial game in the hunt for a top-four spot.
“There’s not much a keeper can do with it when you place it really well and have a bit of power behind it,” Seagulls coach Ben Newell told Star Weekly.
“He put them in really good areas in the top corner.”
Coleman has risen to third on the premier league goal scoring tally.
The forward has 14 goals – three behind Southern United chart-topper Matt L’Hullier – with most of them coming from the short corner.
“He does a lot of work on short corners, obviously,” Newell said.
“It’s one of those specialist skills where I think you need to have the body type for it as well.
“He’s got a natural build that helps him to do it, a bit of natural talent and a lot of hard work that goes with it.”
The game’s opening goal went to Altona when John Camilleri scored from open play.
Coleman doubled the Seagulls lead before Footscray pegged one back before the break.
The Seagulls restored their two-goal buffer through Coleman and managed to keep it until the final 10 minutes when the Bulldogs again halved the deficit.
The final 10 minutes were a bit close for comfort for Newell and his players, but they managed to hold on.
“It was a lot closer than I would’ve liked it to have been,” he said.
“There’s still a bit of work in progress as far as closing out those games when we’ve got the lead and just maintaining possession and taking all the momentum out of the game.
“It’s a good problem to have, I’d much rather work on closing out games than chasing them.”
The Seagulls have jumped above Footscray into fifth in the standings.
It might only be the first move in a week of musical chairs in the premier league with three games in six days going some way to sorting out the pretenders from the contenders.
In women’s premier league, Footscray remain alive in the finals chase after a 3-2 win over bottom side Kew at the Footscray Hockey Centre.
The Bulldogs scored all three of their goals in the first half – two coming off the stick of Tegan Purser, who has 11 goals on the season to be fifth on the goal scoring list.
Altona was on the receiving end of a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Greensborough at the Greensborough Hockey Centre.
