Craig Deans’ weekly catch up, touching on last week’s draw and returning home to take on the Victory this Saturday night.
Firstly, it was great to get a point on our away game scoreboard. It would have been preferable to gain all three but one is better than none.
Our overall performance was good; a little unlucky with some shots on goal but a pleasing effort throughout. The team dynamic at the moment is great. The players are improving their understanding of each other-s talents and that was reflective on the field.
The boys managed to stick to the game plan and keep the ball moving as fast and as quick as possible. Possession was another strong point of ours and we tried to capitalise on every pass.
The front third should have been a little more patient with the ball and slightly more careful with their decision making. Some of the attempts on goal could have been converted if they had just thought about it a little more.
We had a slight reshuffle of the team again this week, bringing Tiago Calvano and Francis Jeffers back onto the pitch. Francis- experience is second to none and we utilised that strength on Friday night.
Another great performance came from Labinot Haliti, playing exceptionally well for the fifteen minutes or so he was on the field. He created a couple of good goal scoring opportunities, but unfortunately he could not find the back of the net.
Matthew Nash also put in a good effort as goalkeeper, with Ben Kennedy having been ruled out by our last home game against Brisbane Roar. Ben has been back at training this week, but after Nash-s quality performance on Friday night, Gary will have a tough decision as to who will play against Victory on Saturday.
Melbourne Victory are an extremely talented side and I expect Saturday-s match to be quite the challenge. We need to stick to our game plan and focus on our delivery. We mustn-t let ourselves become blind sighted by the talent of Harry Kewell. There are many experienced players in that team and if we lose focus they will take the game from us.
The focal point of this week-s training will be our attacking third – moving the ball better on the field and in turn, creating more goal scoring opportunities with execution and patience.
On a less serious note, we have now reached the last week of Movember and each of the boys ‘mo-s- are looking great.Jeremy Brockie is amongst the highest fundraisers but that is due to his bribery skills I believe, and not his actual ability to grow the mo. Tiago Calavano and Tarek Erich have the best ‘mo-s- overall, the rest of them are a little tragic. I for one will be looking forward to shaving mine off this week.
I look forward to seeing all our Members and fans come game kick time this Saturday, cheering us to a victory against Victory.
Craig Deans
