Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins was proud of his team after a 2-1 Westfield W-League win over Perth Glory on Saturday.
A brace from Amy Jackson led Victory to its win at Dorrien Gardens, where Casey Dumont made a first-half penalty save to deny Crystal Thomas.
Victory held on despite Leticia McKenna’s second-half strike and Hopkins praised his side’s performance.
“It was a tough game for us,” he said.
“It was a game that we prepared to play a certain way and a lot of the things we talked about doing we did and we did really well, including just getting the ball wide as often as possible, switching play.
“Their strength was through the centre of midfield and we tried to avoid the area as much as we could and I thought we did it really well.
“I think you could tell just by the application and the desperation at times that it was a game we felt we had to win and we were determined to win so I was really proud of the effort from everyone, one the way we prepared and the way we went about the game, but two the way we stuck to it against a team that’s playing quite direct and has quite a number of attacking threats.”
Jackson made her second start of the season and produced a fine performance, including scoring a stunning long-range goal for the opener.
Hopkins hailed the midfielder, who moved onto 12 Westfield W-League goals for Victory – the equal third most for the club.
“Fantastic. We brought Amy in to give us a little bit of defensive stability in midfield alongside Haley Hanson and they both did really well, but obviously Amy has got a lot more to her game than just that and it’s fantastic,” Hopkins said.
“The first goal was an amazing strike from distance and she contributed a lot going forward and it wasn’t a surprise when she got on the scoresheet for the second one as well.”
It all came after Dumont saved her third penalty of the season, continuing her fine run of form.
“It was amazing. We’re almost expecting her to save everything now,” Hopkins said. “It was a really important save for us because it kept us at 0-0 and we kind on moved on from there.
❌❌❌ @CaseyDumont #PERvMVC 0-0 #WLeague @FOXFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/gmwUfHveeq
— Victory W-League (@victorywleague) December 28, 2019
“I felt we had a really good start to the game and that could’ve spoilt that.
“I don’t know how she does it, but she seems to be able to read the way the ball is going to go every time and get herself in position to save it so great contribution from her, she dealt with a lot of balls in the air, they were quite direct and got the ball into the box a lot and she took away a lot of the pressure a lot of the time with some good takes above her head as well.”
