A huge thanks to Nicholas James Lawyers for presenting this weekend’s match report.
Patience in football asks you to trust the process when the scoreboard keeps suggesting you shouldn’t. Essendon Royals spent the first portion of the 2026 VPL2 season doing exactly that, collecting one win from seven rounds while the performances pointed toward a better story than the table was telling.
Friday night at Altona City delivered the third consecutive win, and the scoreline tells a particular kind of story. Goalless through eighty minutes of a cagey, controlled contest, with the Altona City goalkeeper the busier of the two, before Jordan Adeyemi broke the deadlock on 81 minutes and Dean Clarke’s thunderbolt of a free kick put the result beyond any doubt eight minutes later.
Two goals in the final nine minutes. The patience paid off exactly when it needed to.
The first half had established the shape of what was coming. The Royals were the better side without manufacturing clear-cut chances, and the goalkeeper at the other end was kept working. Eighty minutes of that kind of pressure has a way of eventually finding the gap, and Adeyemi, whose contribution continues a season of consistent finishing that has placed him among VPL2’s leading scorers, provided it.
Clarke’s free kick was the kind of goal that does more than double the lead. A consistent presence in build-up throughout the campaign, his finish at Altona confirmed that the Royals’ threat originates from more than one source.
Manager Mick Ferrante was direct in his assessment afterwards. “Probably our most disciplined performance and probably most consistent overall as a team in both facets – attacking and defending,” he said.
He was honest about the weeks when results moved against his side. “Although results were going against us, I thought the processes and the things we were trying and the way we’re playing was positive. A bit of a mindset has changed – from playing well and losing, to discipline and knowing what it takes to win games.”
The improvement, he insisted, has not been accidental. “It’s not hit and miss. It’s been improving, improving, improving.”
Clean sheets tell the story as clearly as any scoreline. “We couldn’t buy one in the first eight games,” Ferrante acknowledged. “If we keep clean sheets we’re a big chance of winning football games.” Two in the last three rounds suggest the message has been absorbed.
Three wins from three. The run is real.
Eastern Lions visit Cross Keys on Friday night in Round 11.
