Clayton Zane discusses the W-League’s defeat on Saturday and what the team needs to do to make finals.
Saturday just wasn-t our night and unfortunately, we didn-t walk away with three points, having gone down to Melbourne Victory 2-1 at Simonds Stadium.
We started the game a littler slower than anticipated, although we did manage to score in the first half. However, as the game proceeded I felt the intensity of the team lift.
There were many positives to take out of Saturday-s game regardless of the result.
With Emily van Egmond pulling out of the line up the day before it was left to our youngest players in the midfield to bring us home.
Our bright young girls played exceptionally well, especially Hannah Brewer. Regardless of their age the girls put in a massive effort and displayed some quality football.
Disappointingly, we conceded two goals against us. I believe that these were due to a few individual errors and lack of concentration. We need to maintain the same level of intensity and pace throughout the whole match and not lose sight towards the business end.
This week we have a bye and I hope to be utilising as much training time as possible. The girls will have a quiet weekend, but come Monday we will be back in the swing of things.
I-ll be focusing on our defensive shape and our team dynamic. We have some extremely tough games ahead of us and we will be doing everything in our power to try and secure ourselves the fourth spot in the finals.
Next time we hit the field we meet Canberra for the second time, and our aim is to upset their undefeated streak. Although it will be a challenging game, I hope to amend our faults and downfalls from previous games and successfully walk away with a win.
Our performance and victories are crucial as we edge closer to the all important semis. Our season predictions were to the gain the fourth spot in the finals and we are not giving up on it. We will be training hard and playing tougher to secure that prediction for us and our fans.
We-ll need to defeat Perth in both matches and beat either Sydney or Canberra to make the finals. I believe the girls will be able to pull it off, but we will just have to wait and see.
Clayton
