Hume City’s 2026 NPL Victoria campaign has gotten off to a rocky start after a 3-1 loss to Altona Magic on Friday night.

With a fresh-looking line up taking the field following a busy off season of signings, we couldn’t produce the result we wanted after two second half goals from the visitors stole the game away from us.

It was a sprightly start to the game as Chris Engelhart, who was one of seven official Hume City debutants, produced a moment of magic within the first two minutes when he got the ball at the edge of the box and then produced an inch-perfect chip over Altona goalkeeper Casey Went.

The goal gave us plenty of energy early on as we piled on the pressure, with Taylor Schriivers’ header after a beautiful free kick 20 minutes in almost doubling the lead.

While it was predominantly one way traffic, Altona equalised out of nowhere as a shot from outside the box by Brian Sutomo saw the ball fly into the top corner.

Not deflated by the goal, Adiseu Bayew had an opportunity to give us back the lead after getting onto the end of a nice ball into the box from Aidan Coyne, but put it just wide.

Right before half time, we mounted more and more pressure on the Altona defence, with Engelhart’s attempt to add a second coming even closer as it sailed past the wrong side of the post, while Bayew almost added another but was beaten to the ball by the goalkeeper in an attempt to get onto a searching through ball.

At half time, we had looked the far better team and the more likely to score, and that pressure continued early into the second half with a number of dangerous attempts. However, it was Altona who went ahead thanks to Daniel Fabrizio’s flick-on header from a corner.

The momentum then swung the visitors’ way as Altona proved the more likely to score the next goal – their third eventually coming in the 80th minute when a striking run from Aymano Sordo along the left wing cut through the Hume City defence and allowed him to place a dangerous ball into the box, with former Hume City player Oli Keller powering the ball home.

Hume nearly got a consolation goal on multiple occasions deep into regular time, with the best chance being a scramble following a chaotic corner before Godfrey Debele came close, having had a shot go agonisingly wide.

Altona then had one last opportunity to make it four late in stoppage time but an incredible save in a one-on-one position from new goalkeeper Chris Oldfield kept the score at 3-1.

In the end it didn’t matter as the final whistle blew, giving Altona its first victory over Hume City FC since 2009.

Fortunately, Hume City has a short break between games as we head to Lakeside Stadium on Thursday 19 February for our clash against South Melbourne.