Our Melbourne City Women are back on the winners' list thanks to a largely-dominant performance against Adelaide United, getting the better of the South Australians to the tune of 3 goals to 1.
Rhianna Pollicina opened the scoring with a stunning long-range strike before teeing up Hannah Wilkinson from a corner not too long after. The Reds struck back through Chelsie Dawber following a corner of their own, but Wilkinson again popped up in stoppage time to secure all three points for her team.
What did we learn from this one? Let's find out:
Keep Stotty in Midfield!
The way Rebekah Stott has begun this season in central midfield, it's like she's played there for ten years.
When she plays, the Kiwi oozes confidence with her dribbling, positioning and passing, and has the tenacity and hunger that comes with playing at the highest levels of the game.
Long may her form in the heart of City's midfield continue, and Rado, do not take her out of there anytime soon.
We deserved a clean sheet
In the first half, in particular, Adelaide couldn't even get close to threatening our goal - no mean feat for a team that had scored a respectable three goals in its first two games against Victory and Canberra.
However, we were sloppy at the set-piece that enabled them to score in the second period, with Evans inexplicably finding space for the header to test Barbieri at first, before our defenders were too slow to react to the loose ball, allowing Dawber to poke it home.
Whilst there's been improvement at both ends of the pitch this season, we need to start securing the clean sheets that will go a long way to helping us back into the Finals.
Pollicina and Wilkinson are just getting started
This game loomed as the one where these two would kick-start their seasons after failing to make an impact in the first two rounds, and that's exactly what they did.
Albeit with a touch of fortune at times, a brace from Wilkinson, plus a screamer and an assist from Pollicina, is just what they needed to put the fear into the other teams in the competition.
City will rely especially on the goals from our Kiwi striker, our first true No. 9 (despite her wearing #17) in years, as we make a serious tilt at a return to Finals.
Now in a solid position with six points from our first three games, our girls will be hoping to not only get back-to-back wins for the first time this season but to also inflict some Derby-revenge on rivals Melbourne Victory next time out on Boxing Day.
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