A STRIKE from Jack Milford late in the game has secured the points for Myrtleford’s senior men’s soccer side in their clash with the dangerous Albury United.

Played on Saturday evening at Savoy Park, Myrtleford kept the mistakes to a minimum to run out winners 2-1.

While their decision making and high-risk play didn’t yield results early, they didn’t cause any defensive errors.

Tom Morrison broke the deadlock in the 31st minute, but Myrtleford couldn’t enjoy a lead for long, with United’s Will Lawrence equalising in the 40th.

After a reset at half-time, the match was an arm-wrestle, with neither side able to land the killer blow.

A substitution brought Jack Milford into the game, and he looked dangerous, eventually connecting on a cross in the 88th to put Savoy ahead.

Myrtleford locked down, content to run the clock out and secure the win.

Coach Jayden Vescio said his side fought back from a sub-par start.

“We didn’t start as well as I would’ve hoped – after having two or three games where we won comfortably previous, I think we went into the game and took risks we didn’t need to take,” he said.

“We turned the ball over early in some horrible spots, but were still able to defend really well, which is pleasing.

“There’s little room for error when you’re playing United, you can’t make errors, they’re a really good team and they’ll make you pay.

“We were making errors but we were good enough to back up with defensive second and third man efforts to negate that, but I knew we had to get that right if we were going to overrun them, and we did get it right.

“There was 10 to go including stoppage time, and there was no way the boys were going to concede after that, they shut up shop really well, and we’ve trained for those situations on a weekly basis and we were able to execute and close out the game very well.”

Savoy sit atop the senior ladder after six rounds of competition, undefeated and with a two-point lead over Cobram Roar.

With the AWFA competition taking the Easter weekend off, Savoy’s next match is a rematch with United in the semi-final of the FA Cup on Wednesday, 23 April.

The senior women took the bye, and will return next Wednesday to take on United at home.