Melbourne City entered this Boxing Day match with a point to prove. While they were third in the A-League Women’s ahead of the game, their only loss of the year had been against Melbourne Victory fourteen days prior.
Second Melbourne Derby
- Melbourne City got the better of Melbourne Victory in a decisive 5-1 win.
- Hannah Wilkinson scored all of City’s goals and made A-League records in the process.
- Her teammate Holly McNamara got a hat-trick of assists.
More A-League Women’s football news can be found on The Women’s Game.
That defeat at the hands of their cross-town opponents occurred after a lapse in concentration in the latter part of the match, when both of Victory’s goals were scored. One would assume that they entered this game wanting to avenge that Derby loss from a fortnight ago.
City would accomplished this with a vengeance.
While the team was disciplined in their play, pressed Victory throughout the match and remained focused, thus providing a good team performance, it was their Kiwi striker Hannah Wilkinson that deserves the plaudits having scored all goals in their 5-1 victory.
Wilkinson started her goal scoring account in the 5th minute of play. Receiving the ball off a good Holly McNamara pass, she smoothly struck it past Victory keeper Casey Dumont to make it 1-0.
Eight minutes later, Dumont would make an error clearing the ball. After deflecting off McNamara it found Wilkinson who scored again to make it 2-0.
A second error thirteen minutes later led to Wilkinson’s third of the day. What seemed like a miscommunication between Dumont and centre-back Tiffany Eliadis resulted in Eliadis’ clearing header bouncing past her keeper. It was picked up by the striker who slotted it into an open goal.
Wilkinson’s 26-minute three goal scoring spree was the fastest hat-trick from the start of a game in the fourteen years of the Dub’s existence. It was also only the first of two records she would set in the A-League Women on Boxing Day.
This is because her onslaught was not over.
Eleven minutes into the second half her strike partner McNamara crossed the ball into the box to an open Wilkinson whose shot made it 4-0. The City star then made it 5-0 in the 75th minute when she single-touched Tyla-Jay Vlajnic’s cross into the back of the net.
Take a bow Hannah Wilkinson 🔥
A famous @LibFinancial A-League performance 😍
5 goals, simply incredible 👑#WeAreALeagues
📹 @Channel10AU pic.twitter.com/ZfHp3xzQMd
— Liberty A-League (@aleaguewomen) December 26, 2021
While Victory’s Maja Markovski would get an 84th minute goal, it was largely a consolatory one as the game ended 5-1 with City claiming the second Melbourne Derby win this year.
Wilkinson’s five goals make her the second A-League Women’s player ever to score five goals in a game, alongside Kate Gill, a joint-record.
They also also bring her goal tally to seven this year in the A-League Women. She is now the A-League Women’s 2021-22 current top scorer. Her teammate McNamara’s hat trick of assists this game have led to her claiming the top assists position.
The full A-League Women’s schedule can be found using this link.
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