Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins was happy with his team's Derby win, praising Casey Dumont after the goalkeeper's fine display.

Dumont produced some good saves, including denying Tameka Butt in a one-on-one, before Christine Nairn scored a spectacular 88th-minute winner in Victory's 1-0 success over City.

While Hopkins hailed Victory's team performance after it returned to the top of the Westfield W-League, he praised Dumont for her display at Epping Stadium on Saturday.

"It was excellent. I think the one-on-one with Tameka, that really could've hurt us," he said.

"She stood up, made herself big and really made sure she didn't go to ground too early. That was a real key time of the game as well.

"At key moments in the game, she took a couple of big grabs from balls into the box from set-plays, made a couple of key saves as well.

"That's what you want, that's what you expect from your defenders and your goalkeepers, but sometimes it doesn't always come.

"It's great that we could rely on her this week."

It took a moment of magic from Nairn to separate the teams, the midfielder curling in a corner late on.

Hopkins was pleased with the way his team improved in the second half, having battled in the opening 45 minutes.

"I thought it was reasonably even," he said.

"Most probably they had a fair bit more possession than us, but I think it's one of those games where defensively our players stood up and Casey was excellent in goal, made a few crucial saves at really important times.

"Sam (Johnson) and Loz (Laura Alleway) and the two full-backs – the full-backs had a few problems in the first half, they fixed things up at half-time and were much, much more solid in the second half.

"Right the way through, you can talk about everyone to be honest. The midfield worked so hard, the wingers worked hard up and down.

"At times we got things a little bit wrong defensively, but we just kept going and going and going and we never let it affect us, which is so pleasing for this group of players."