More promising pre-season signs for Bendigo City FC

The Dockerty Cup features 134 clubs from across Victoria, with the first seven rounds of the competition also serving as preliminary rounds for the Australia Cup.

After conceding the first goal of the game Bendigo City FC defeated Glen Waverley 2-1 at the Darebin International Sports Centre.

Trailing 0-1 Luke Burns equalised soon after for Bendigo City FC as the two sides went into half-time locked at 1-1, before Chidinma Esomeju converted a free kick in the second half for the winning goal for Bendigo.

"We had plenty of chances in that first half and probably should have put the game to bed had we taken our opportunities," Bendigo City FC coach Sean Boxshall said.

"It was a game of two halves with the windy conditions. We had the wind in the second half, so we applied a high press and put them under a fair bit of pressure.

"They didn't really trouble us in the second half, but again we didn't quite take our chances as well as we could have.

"To the credit of the boys, they put in a solid defensive effort again. Their defensive shape in our two Dockerty Cup games and last week's pre-season game have both been very good.

"The boys are sticking to the gameplan and structure and defensively we've been pretty tight at the back, so it's going well."

Bendigo City FC's senior team has now had three pre-season hit-outs.

Bendigo City FC defeated Wyndham 2-1 in its round one Dockerty Cup game a fortnight ago before beating Berwick City 2-0 in a practice match and then following up with Saturday's successful outing against Glen Waverley.

Bendigo City FC's next opponent in the Dockerty Cup will be the Bayside Argonauts, with the game to be played in Bendigo on the Labour Day long weekend in March.

Bendigo City FC will again be competing in Football Victoria's State League 5 West competition this year, with Boxshall the newly-appointed senior coach.

Bendigo City last year finished fourth in State League 5 West with 14 wins, one draw and five losses.