It’s fair to say the last fortnight has been the best so far in South Yarra’s short foray into the WPL wilderness to date.
Confidence in the camp is sky high after grabbing a dream 5-0 win over Casey Comets just over a week after copping eight unanswered against South Melbourne.
But coach Danny Hall has revealed the tough work and application his girls put in throughout the week leading up to the shock result, citing a record training attendance and real desire to turn things around.
“I think a lot of [the way in which they responded] has to go down to the girls. They’re close, it’s only a small group of girls really. They’re very close and they’ve shown that they’re really resilient,” Hall said mid-week.
“The attendance at training after that South Melbourne game was brilliant, it was the best of the season. Their response and their attitude that week, they realised that didn’t do themselves justice.
“That’s a shame because you look at the fixture list, see you’re playing on Lakeside Stadium on a Saturday afternoon and you look forward to it and unfortunately we missed a chance there.
“We conceded an early goal and it was downhill from there. All credit to the girls, they were excellent in training that week and they really wanted to make that right. They felt the hurt of such a big defeat and they did it. We were very proud of their response, from one week to the next.”
That response was a monumental first ever win in the WPL, a win that was admittedly for Hall “certainly beyond anything we ever had hoped for or expected”. The win against the Comets was promptly followed by a consolidating 4-1 Team App Cup win against Croydon City Arrows, as the minnows booked a spot in the final 16 against Bundoora United.
“We’ve been improving every week and we’ve been slowly getting that confidence. Other than the South Melbourne game, which was very difficult for us, we’ve been getting there. I thought we were unlucky against Heidelberg not to get a point.
“They’ve certainly got confidence from that game, which showed in our cup game on the weekend. They’ve been a different team at training at the moment. They realise how much they have to put into every game though and I think that’s one of the biggest things to come from it.
“[For the Cup game], we brought in some of the girls in the reserve squad who have played quite well. We obviously still had some established players in there and we played well without ever reaching the heights.
“Obviously at 1-0 down, we didn’t really start playing until that point. It’s always difficult with the State Leagues sides; you never know what you’re up against one season to the next. If you look at Croydon’s form, they’re absolutely killing their league at the moment.
“We played with confidence, you could tell that the Casey point had [played its part]. Hopefully that was a turning point, because the way that we played, the way we passed the ball, albeit against State League opposition, was the best we’ve done all season.”
Heading into a crunch match against Sandringham SC tonight, with the chance at grabbing a third successive win, Hall is hoping his side have turned a corner and have ridded some of the inconsistencies that have blighted his side this season to date.
Also working in his favour tonight is the way in which Casey performed against Sandy earlier in the season, where they came five minutes away from grabbing the full offer of points, but finished on the wrong end of a 2-1 score line.
It’s a small mental boost for Hall and South Yarra, but it may prove telling by 10:30 tonight knowing they ousted a side that proved they could match it with a powerhouse like Sandringham.
“Absolutely, we’ll certainly mention it. Football doesn’t work like that but it’s about them having that belief. The coaching staff have believed in them all season but we haven’t quite always reached the levels that we’d hoped for.
“The level is really high, and it’s the consistency that we’ve been struggling for. But we now know what it takes to beat a good WPL side. They know the level they need to play at to do that and as long as they go out and believe that they can do that against Sandy – and we certainly will be mentioning that Sandy vs. Casey game to them – then we do have confidence that we can get something out of the game.
“The confidence, their demeanour and the things they do in training have improved dramatically in the past two weeks. So there is a good feel at the moment. We’ve lost the first few but we’ve won the last two. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to remain tough but they feel now like they belong and they know the level of intensity they have to get to and they’re really showing that in training at the moment which is good.”