By Jack Henty.

Saturday afternoon brought a twilight fixture to John Cain Memorial Park between the home side Northcote City and their visitors Richmond SC. Despite their best efforts, the visitors were unable to challenge Northcote who proved to be too strong, defeating Richmond 5 -2.

The home side began with a bang thanks to the clever work by Jason Trifiro who was able to find the back of the net in a one-on-one with Richmond’s goalkeeper Ross Antoniadis.

The action soon continued in the fifth minute when Northcote gave away a penalty due to a handball in the box but only for Chris O’Hare to hit the cross bar and Michael Catalano was able score on the rebound however only to be denied due to offside.

Catalano was a livewire upfront and a real shining light for Richmond in their defeat as he provided constant effort and skill to create opportunities for Richmond later in the match.

Meanwhile at the other end of the pitch, Northcote continued to dominate possession and created opportunities mainly through their linchpin captain Trent Rixon.

After a brief period of Richmond dominance where Timmy Purcell had two opportunities to find the back of the net only to be brilliantly saved on the line by Alvaro Carrillo, who guarded the goal superbly for Northcote, Rixon was finally able to find the back of the net after some brilliant play through the midfield to cap off the first half with scoreboard reading 2 – 0 to Northcote City.

The second half began in a similar vein to first where Northcote City’s defence was unwavering and relishing the challenge of Richmond’s persistent attack.

Northcote were able to add their third goal in the 52nd minute due to James Kalafatidis who found the top left corner.

Whilst Northcote were dominating possession and were sensational in defence led by Carrillo, Richmond were able to get some reward for persistence in the 61st minute through Batsis who registered Richmond’s first goal.

Just four minutes later Trent Rixon was able to score an incredible header thanks to an acrobatic leap that was able to truly put Richmond to bed, with the score line reading 4 – 1.

Antun Kovacic was able to salvage some pride for his side scoring a tidy header to bring the scores to 4 – 2 before Northcote put the final nail in the coffin through Kalafatidis who scored on the rebound from a previous strike bringing the final score to 5-2.

Richmond look to redeem themselves next week as they play last year’s VPL premiers Green Gully Cavaliers at home whereas Northcote City venture out to Broadmeadows Valley Park where they play the inform Hume City.

Northcote City: Chris PETROPOULOS (GK), Hayden D'AGOSTINO, Kristian KONSTANDINIDIS, Samuel TORRENS, Paul SAVIO, Jason TRIFIRO, Glen TRIFIRO, Harry KINIGOPOULOS, Nicholas CURTIS, James KALIFATIDIS, Trent RIXON (c)
SUBS: Charles TREACY, Nick TZOULIS, Adriano CHIAPETTA, Eddie SOARES, George MICHEILEH.

Richmond SC: 1. Stjepan GAL, , 3. Erhan KARAHAN, 4. Ross ANTONIADIS, 5. Mitch BISSINGER, 6. Dimitri TSIARAS, 7. Timmy PURCELL,9. Michael CATALANO, 10. Chris O’HARE, 13. Anton KOVACIC, 16. Stuart WILSON, Michael FERRANTE
.Subs: 11. Mate ETEROVIC, 20. Robert SIMEONI 2. Andrew VIOLA, 19. Evan BATSIS.