Michelle Heyman has achieved A-Leagues history, becoming the first player to score 100 Liberty A-League goals with her first of two strikes in Canberra United’s 3-1 win over Adelaide United on Saturday evening.
Minutes after Isabel Hodgson gave Adelaide the lead at Leichhardt Oval, Heyman brought up the tonne in the 50th minute with a tidy finish, before scoring a second and her 101st goal with a well-weighted header only one minute later.
Vesna Milivojevic wrapped up the win with a long-range strike, which took her back on top of the Liberty A-League Golden Boot charts, and completed the come-from-behind win for Canberra.
Heyman’s brace not only made her the first player in the competition to reach the tonne, but the fourth in A-Leagues history to do so, following Melbourne City star Jamie Maclaren (151 goals), legendary striker Besart Berisha (142 goals) and Melbourne Victory gun Bruno Fornaroli (101 goals); going level with the latter in the process on the all-time charts.
The win takes Canberra off the foot of the ladder and breathes life into their season heading into the second-half of the season, sitting five points outside the top six with a game-in-hand.
Meanwhile, the Reds have lost their last three games and now sit last, as a result of the defeat.
The striker almost scored her 100th goal within minutes, after being played one-on-one with Annalee Grove by Nicki Flannery, but Heyman put her effort straight at the Reds goalkeeper.
Adelaide survived the early scare and gained control of the contest for the remainder of the half. Their first real chance on goal came through Alana Jancevski, who did well to create some space inside the box and force a brilliant save from Chloe Lincoln.
Moments later, Mariah Lee had a chance of her own after being teed up by Jancevski, but her strike went straight at Lincoln after some good defence by Sofia Christopherson.
Adrian Stenta’s side went into break with all the momentum and didn’t take a backwards step after half-time, taking the lead within seconds of the restart.
Hannah Blake fed through Lee, who burst down the right-flank and put it on a platter for Hodgson who smashed home the opener.
But Adelaide’s lead only lasted a matter of minutes as Heyman had her moment in the sun.
The Canberra striker pounced on a mistake from Maruschka Waldus and broke in behind the Reds defence, before cooly slotting the ball past Grove to score her historic 100th goal.
And only 86 seconds later, Heyman had her brace.
Milivojevic’s well weighted cross found Heyman, whose looping header back across Grove beat the Reds keeper to give Canberra the lead.
Canberra weren’t satisfied with their one-goal lead and doubled their advantage in the 64th minute through Milivojevic.
The Serbian international gathered the ball on the right flank, before cutting inside and slamming the ball into the back of the net, to score her ninth goal in the competition and first since December 10.
The Heyman and Milivojevic combo continued to cause headaches for the Reds defence, and the former almost had a hat-trick after just putting the Golden Boot leader’s cross wide of the post.
