Having thrashed Myrtleford seven days earlier before reaching the AWFA FA Cup final in midweek, the Greens kept rolling with another tireless display at Jelbart Park.

Goals from Melkie Woldemichael and Dylan Mountain, in the space of five minutes just after the hour, earned United a sixth straight league win to keep pace with Wangaratta.

"I'm really proud of the boys," coach Matt Campbell said. "They did a lot of work to recover from Wednesday night.

"We rate Boomers really highly - on their day, with all their good players, they're a top-two team - so to get that result and keep us on top was really important.

"There will be a few sore bodies tomorrow and we'll be very light on the track this week but that high work-rate is a focus of ours.

"With the players we've got, they thrive on that. Guys like Melkie and Roy (Caleb Martin), they don't like the pace of the game to drop off."

United had the best of a cagey first half as Boomers struggled to string more than two passes together, although clear-cut chances were at a premium.

The first goal was always going to be crucial so when two came along at once, it was almost game over.

Woldemichael picked out the top corner with a glorious free-kick from 20 yards, before Mountain bundled the ball in from close-range after Jimmy Carr had nodded Gautier Robin's deep delivery back across the six-yard box.

At the other end, Josh Fluss pulled off a good low save to claw out a Stefan Bukvic header but the stand-in goalkeeper otherwise had very little to do.

Woldemichael and Martin should have extended the margin of victory late on as the visitors faded.

"It was tough out there," admitted Boomers coach Andrew Grove. "We were struggling, personnel-wise, a few guys had to double up with ressies and seniors which never helps.

"But they're a good team. They're aggressive, they've got a game style and they stick to it.

"They scored two set-piece goals, which they're very strong with. We spoke about not giving away any free-kicks but we didn't stick to that, which was a bit disappointing."

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Grove had to come off midway through the second half and he joins a Boomers injury list which is now into double-figures. Noah Spiteri played with a hamstring injury and the visitors badly missed the presence of Pieter Noordewier up front.

"We made the injuries worse by playing but we had no option," Grove said. "We had about six senior guys on the bench for ressies so there was no-one else."

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