Zac MADSEN

Melville registered their very first national league win at Gower Park, with a 2-0 victory over a well-performed Birkenhead United team, on a weekend when the club was celebrating its 50th anniversary It was an occasion of some note, against opposition that would have moved to second on the table had it won, even without the wider context of Melville’s previous home wins at national league level having all come at Porritt Stadium (1997-98). It moved coach Sam Wilkinson to reflect that it was supremely fitting that that his team should produce “a really ‘Melville’ performance” . “We have a group of lads where as a team we are greater than the sum of our individual parts, ” he said.

But this was a hard-fought victory in a close tussle, ultimately decided in Melville’s favour by 71st minute penalty and then a joyous runway goal in stoppage time. It was a match played at a good clip but with relatively few chances at either end, so it was of huge significance when Luke Searle earned a penalty in the 70th minute. Oli Colloty calmly slotted his 17th goal of the season and third of the national league campaign to the great relief of the Melville camp. And the win was finally sealed in the 94th minute as Birkenhead pressed furiously for an equaliser. Birkenhead keeper Silvio Rodic had advanced in quest of late heroics from a corner. But the ball broke to sub Jerson Lagos who outsprinted everyone as he ran 50 metres to tap it into the Birkenhead goal, for his fifth goal of the year, but first of the national league series.