Altona Magic will have to wait at least another week to secure the FFV men’s state league 1 championship.
The Magic had one hand on the title on more than one occasion during a ridiculously entertaining 4-4 draw with Westgate on the road at Ardeer Reserve on Saturday evening.
Two leads during the game went by the wayside for Magic, and when the dust settled on a free-flowing game beset by defensive errors from both sides, eight goals split evenly was a fitting result.
Magic coach Vlado Tortevski told Star Weekly it was the first time this season his side had broken down so badly defensively.
“All season, the defence has been a strong part of the team, but this time they fell apart for some reason,” he said.
“We had three or four players down at the same time and when you have that many passengers in the team, it’s hard to get a good result.
“Anyway, we came out with a draw. We have to sit down, talk about it and analyse everything, and I hope it’s not going to happen again. I must give credit to Westgate because they fight. They had a good spirit to achieve something and in the end they got a point.”
There will be the odd conspiracy theorist suggesting that Altona manipulated the result in order to win the title on its home ground.
Tortevski laughed off any suggestions of that, but he admits the party will be bigger if the Magic can secure victory over Keilor Park on Saturday evening.
“It would probably be a bigger celebration at home, but this is nothing to do with the game we had at Westgate,” the coach said.
“The game was one of the weakest performances we’ve had in a long time. It was a very exciting game for the supporters but not for the coaches watching.”
Jon McShane continued his stellar season for Altona with a double. He’s the leading goalscorer in the competition, with 16 from 17 games. McShane was a stand-out performer as was Jason Hayne, who also found the back of the net. Magic’s other goalscorer was Danny Barakat.
Elsewhere in state league 1, Altona East Phoenix took a giant leap towards safety with a 1-0 win over Preston Lions at Paisley Park.
Yarraville Glory denied second-last Cairnlea maximum points in a 1-1 draw, thus avoiding being dragged into a relegation battle as they remain six points clear of the bottom two.
In state league 2, Altona City is doing everything in its power to gatecrash the top two. City kept its promotion hopes alive with a 1-0 win away to Moreland United.
City has won its past seven games to move to within three points of shaky second-placed Essendon Royals with three games to go.
In state league 3, FC Williamstown might have to settle for third after slipping six points behind second-placed Westvale with just nine points up for grabs in the season.
The Blues had a 1-1 draw with Fawkner Zaparas – not the result they wanted to keep the pressure on Westvale.
Melbourne City had a 3-2 win over Western Eagles after a double to Simba Saidi.
In state league 4, Altona North lost to newly crowned champions Brimbank Stallions 5-1, while in state league 5, Laverton Park was hammered 7-1 by the Keilor Wolves.
