BY THE PALM TREES – Round 10 Preview

The hits kept coming for the club, players and fans when Melbourne City took their first win at Central Coast Stadium. After a positive start including a couple of decent chances, the Mariners came to grief from just before half time, as Melbourne City showed they are heading in the right direction. The danger players mentioned in my last blog (Mooy and Fornaroli) were at the fore. Add Harry Novillo to that list and things were pretty tough for the men in Yellow.

Results like this one make it hard to want to be motivated to write about your team, but true fans take the bad with the good so I press on.

There were positives. Harry Ascroft did a marvellous job of containing the “best player in the A-League” (Mooy – Via Socceroos Coach Ange Postecoglou), for the first half and parts of the second. Ascroft is one of the young fellas in our squad who are showing definite improvement and we have at least another couple – McGing and Poscoliero – who are doing the same.

I don’t like to blame players but on the “not so positive” side, Roy O’Donovan has not been able to come up with the finishing or quality we expected he might bring. In the City game, two guilt edged opportunities were spurned by O’Donovan and these are added to a number of great chances lost at his feet in previous matches. Most concerning is the fact that he just doesn’t look confident of finishing one on one chances. The first few he missed this season could be overlooked as “settling in” but now we have to ask the question when those chances are going to start going in the net? We surely need to start finishing some of them soon if we are to salvage anything from this season. The last couple of weeks have also exposed the lack of experience and quality across the depth of our squad. Take Nick Montgomery and Fabio Ferreira from the team and this is where the missing quality we expected from O’Donovan has been at its most visible. No one can doubt the amount of work and effort he’s putting in, but it takes more than work to be a consistent goal scorer in the A-League these days and if we’re going to play a game where attack is the first priority, we have to finish a good percentage of our chances. We’re not doing that.

Let’s hope that is about to change. I’ve told the coaches I’m willing to be patient as we develop our young talent into a team capable of carrying out the forthright game plan we aspire to, but every fan will have different views about how long they’re willing to wait. Results like last round will certainly shorten that period for some and should we fall to our lowest table position of the season, with a loss in Perth, many more will abandon ship.

Perth Glory has been a team under similar pressure to us this season. Unable to return to anything like the performances of last year, or to get the most from their newest recruits, there are many similarities between them and us. Perhaps the biggest difference is that our game plan has provided excitement where Perth fans must be wondering what they have to look forward to each weekend.

Our players will head into this match desperate but without confidence. Our first round win against Perth Glory will at least help with our sub-conscious. The return of Nick Montgomery will do much to stabilize the team and provide quality, force and direction at its core. The continuing absence of Fabio Ferreira and the lack of alternatives we have in the area of goal scoring will not help our chances.

Finally, on the issue of the fan actions – I’m heartened to see the FFA beginning to make sense and should they follow through with promises made to fans assembled to discuss the issues, we will likely find an improved working relationship ongoing. It’s great to see this is the case because the last two disrupted crowds at Central Coast Stadium have been a stark notice that without the fans, there will be no atmosphere at all. I don’t care if that reporter from that newspaper thinks this agreement is a cave in from the FFA. Her warped and mostly fictional articles are not worth a response longer than this sentence.

My prediction: – 1-1 draw and a tight and cagey affair, watched by a very low TV crowd, between two teams who will not want to lose.

 

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