Recap

The middle game of the card saw was set to be the game of the night as top placed and undefeated Richmond faced off against second place Fitzroy. With a sizeable gap between the two a win for Richmond would all but end the slip hope the rest of the league had of making up the difference. Richmond started the stronger with Christine Fonua’s ability to play out again proving deadly as the Richmond stopper scored from distance to make it 1-0. Fitzroy would hit back shortly after though with Chloe Drinoczky finishing off a well worked free kick. Soon after Fitzroy were in front as Fonua’s attacking minded approach saw her caught out with Ili Jakab the beneficiary lobbing home into an empty net. Fitzroy had taken complete control of the game and opened up a two goal gap with Sarah Richardson scoring a long range toe poke to make it 3-1. A mistake from the Richmond defence saw Jess Dillon get her first Series Futsal Victoria goal as she lashed home from close range. Richmond would pull one back through the league top scorer Em Coppock to have Richmond trailing 4-2 at the break.

The second half was a different contest as Richmond took total control and dominated from the outset. Fitzroy were managing to hold them off but the pressure tolled as first gamer Mikhaila Bowden got her first goal in Richmond colours before a well worked free kick from Richmond saw Penny Bakopoulos finish off the chance to have Richmond back on level terms. It seemed to take that to bring Fitzroy back into life and some good work from Drinoczky saw her win the ball at half way and finish one on one with Fonua to seal all three points for Fitzroy to hand Richmond their first loss of the 2017/18 season.

Player of the game – Jess Dillon (Fitzroy FC)