A disappointed Bentleigh Greens coach John Anastasiadis felt his side’s 3-1 home loss to Heidelberg United was “very frustrating” and that they need a bit more luck to get out of their recent slump in form.
With their last win coming against Dandenong Thunder on April 25, and only one point gained against cellar dwellers Goulburn Valley since then, Anastasiadis feels his side has to look at themselves to turn their fortunes around.
“This year thing’s aren’t falling for us a lot – we need a little bit of luck here and there but can’t take away their effort, their effort was great today,” said Anastasiadis.
“We’ve missed an absolute sitter and they’ve just scored so you just wonder what’s going on but look, we’re in a hole and the solution is in the dressing room – it’s nowhere else.
“We’ve got to do better than that.”
Bentleigh found themselves reeling in the 30th minute when a defensive mistake from goalkeeper Stuart Webster, who replaced the suspended Alastair Bray, allowed Heidelberg back into the game.
The stray clearance from the ‘keeper rebounded off Heidelberg’s Daniel Heffernan and rolled into the back of the net, a goal that really sums up Bentleigh’s season according to Anastasiadis.
“That’s just what it’s like – it’s a comedy of errors, it’s like watching a comedy,” he said.
“We can’t take a trick out at the moment but no use crying and moping about it.
“We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and start training on Monday again and start training hard again and hopefully it turns,” Anastasiadis added.
Bentleigh were missing spark and run in the middle of the park after industrious midfielder Luc Jeggo was substituted in the 15th minute, following a stray elbow to the head in an aerial contest.
“It was a massive loss – we lost a lot of energy in the middle of the park,” said Anastasiadis.
“Once we lost him, it did lose a bit of energy but the team’s not made of one person, it’s made of 20.”
Bentleigh youngster Liam McCormick stepped up and provided a consistent effort throughout the contest as he tried to get his side back on track but Anastasiadis says his side will need to work their way collectively out of their run of poor form.
“Liam [McCormick is] a boy who puts in 100% every time we play – all the boys are good and they’re all feeling it at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve got to climb out of [this form slump] – it’s something we haven’t been used to we’ve got to find a solution and we’ve got to find it quickly.
“At the moment everyone’s really down on confidence because we haven’t been in this situation for about three and a half years so it’s something that we’ve got to fight our way out of.
“The only way is to just go back to the drawing board and just work hard at training.”
Anastasiadis’ men will travel to Port Melbourne on Friday hoping to bring three points back to Kingston Heath.