By Callum Ludwig
The Lilydale Eagles kickstarted their 2025 campaign in the Victorian Churches Football Association (VCFA) Men’s Premier League 2 Division with two matches at home under Friday night lights against One FC.
The Reserves were first up with a mixture of youth and ‘experience’ aiming to guide them to glory this season.
The first half was a cagey affair, with the Eagles dominating possession but failing to pull the trigger at the right moments and test the One FC keeper.
Mark Vanderkolk was breezing past opponents in the centre of the park, to the frustration of the One FC captain, but he appears to still be allergic to taking a shot when the opportunity presents.
Marcus Salvitti returned from his very short-lived retirement to be a terrier in the middle of the park, cracking into tackles and complaining to the ref as per usual.
Jimmy ‘Clap’ Davies Mcintyre did not don the gloves despite a trial during preseason, instead managing to both play and provide a running commentary on the game from the right wing or the bench.
Despite some work on them in pre-season, Lilydale’s attacking set pieces continued to be a point of frustration as a number of corners and free kicks were delivered that were about as threatening as a wet sponge. There was one exception however, with James ‘Becks’ Laine marauding up for a corner from centre back only to glance his header wide and uphold his reputation for avoiding scoring at all costs.
At halftime, the score remained 0-0 and the Eagles were looking to shake off their stale start in the second half.
However, it didn’t seem to go to plan early on for the boys in red as One FC started to gain some ascendancy in the tie, forcing the Eagles into errors, which gave up chances.
First, a scramble on the edge of the box saw a One FC player sweetly strike a half-volley on goal that took a fingertip diving effort from Callum Ludwig to take past the post and leave the Reserves glad that the decision was made not to leave Jimmy in goal.
Shortly after, a One FC players was slotted through in goal and knocked an effort pash an onrushing Callum that appeared destined for back of the net if not for a desperate goal line clearance from Tarin Cooper to keep scores level.
Seemingly buoyed by their defensive efforts, Lilydale got back on top. The ball was played into the feet of last-minute new recruit Lucas Cordedda on the right wing, who fed Tarin with a neat outside-of-the-boot pass. Tarin fired in either a low shot or cross which beat the keeper and looked likely to score but striker Byron Loveless lived up to his name and showed no love for his teammate and threw a boot at it himself, even claiming the goal to the referee. Regardless, the Eagles were up and about.
From there, the floodgates opened and Lilydale were dominant and it wasn’t long before Lucas made it 2-0, scoring at the near post before bagging a brace not long after, played through and converting with a shot down the centre of the goal.
From there, it was party time for the Eagles, with Nick Seeger joining the fun with a long-range effort from left back that flew into the top corner, managing more attacking output from a short stint in defence despite spending large periods of the game positioned in attack.
Final score Lilydale Eagles Reserves 4-0 One FC Reserves.
The firsts were up next, looking to start their season on a high and initially had some bright moments, with wingers Christian ‘Flik’ Linder-Mark and Jake ‘Digga’ Dioguardi finding some joy cutting in from the flanks and playing the ball across the box.
Despite this, the Eagles were again struggling to get any meaningful efforts on target and test the One FC keeper, other than forcing him into one save at his near post.
One FC started to grow into the game, retaining more of the ball in their defensive half and looking to play long balls over the Eagles’ defence while sitting in defensively to protect their goal. Lilydale for the most part, dealt with these well, whether it was defenders Kaiden Deany-Smith, Braden Zammit, Solomon Hranglung, Lachlan Hamling and Leo Blair coming across or keeper Callum Ludwig sweeping up.
Late in the half, however, the Eagles gave the ball away to put the One FC striker clean through on goal with Callum unable to keep it out as he tucked a simple finish into the bottom corner to put the Eagles on the back foot.
Reflecting their frustration, the Eagles seemed to lose their shape a bit and resorted to trying to play long passes to create attacking opportunities with no luck.
The Eagles went into the halftime break looking to regain control, create more space in the middle of the park and find clear-cut scoring opportunities.
It was a similar tale early in the half though, with the Eagles unable to convert their possession into chances despite some neat play in build-up and One FC continuing to soak up pressure and try to counterattack.
Gilbert Harries got to a cleared cross and struck a vicious volley on goal but it was straight at the keeper and he was able to deal with.
Bailey Hone was the next to get a dangerous shot off, cutting in from the left to fire one that went just wide of the far post.
The clock continued to tick without a breakthrough for the Eagles and a call was heard from the bench that there was only 30 seconds left, believed to have been from the ‘Easter Bunny’ who had been entertaining the juniors before the game, and Lilydale started to try and attack with urgency.
This turned out to be quite the false alarm, with much closer to 10 minutes still left to play, but the frantic push forward saw the Eagles create their best chance of the game, with a whipped cross into the box taking a deflection that was just enough to put playing-coach Daniel ‘Dicko’ Dickson off balance and send his header away from the open goal and out for a goal kick.
Time trickled down and the full time whistle was blown. Final score Lilydale Eagles 0-1 One FC.
The two Eagles sides take on Gideon’s Warriors away on Saturday 12 April.
