Ansell scored the only goal of the exhibition match on Sunday, on the brink of half-time the tall defender towered to bullet the ball past Jan Oblak from Fahid Ben Khalfallah’s free kick.

The 22-year-old regularly goes up for corners and indirect free kicks, but has only scored one goal in his career which was in a 3-3 draw with Sydney FC in early 2015.

“It was, I think we’re not going to hear the end of that, it’s about time he scored one with his head,” Galloway joked.

“He always comes close but never scores, but no it’s good and I’m glad for him.”

Despite the laughs, Galloway was jubilant with their pre-season progress. Victory have defeated the past two UEFA Champions League runners up in the past fortnight.

There is stiff competition in Victory’s squad, Galloway plays as both a left and right-back and coach Kevin Muscat has a cluster of players to choose from to play in those positions.

Galloway goes up against Socceroo Jason Geria, the experienced Daniel Georgievski, vice-captain Leigh Broxham and youngster Stefan Nigro.

Galloway welcomed the competition and was thankful for the pre-season they just had and scoffed at the idea that it was insignificant.

“It’s going to be tough, we’ve got a good squad, but I’m up for the fight this year to push for the starting spot,” he said.

“No matter what people said about who played in these pre-season games, it’s still a good result for us. Their B team or youth players, whoever it is, they’re all going to be class players.

“It was huge, preparation for us, first two games in the pre-season and the first two games you want to get something out of it. You want a platform to build on then move into the next game, we’ve got the cup game midweek, so it’s good preparation for that for us.”