Melbourne City Youth boss Joe Palatsides has declared it a matter of time before his in form side start finding the back of the net on a more frequent basis, despite already piling on seven goals in three games.
Their 2-1 victory against the FFA Centre of Excellence was marred with a number of missed opportunities, although Palatsides was still left impressed by the number of opportunities created.
“That’s an area we have to look at [our finishing],” Palatsides said post-game.
“Creating chances is one thing and putting them away is another. We have to make small steps first, we’re creating a lot of chances, and that’s great to see.
“We’ll put them away and there will be someone on the end of that one day, hopefully soon.”
While the game required an injury time strike from James Brown to split the two sides, Palatsides was left pleased with the endeavour his team showed right until the final whistle.
“Obviously we’re pleased. Part of the learning process is to learn how to win. I congratulated the boys on that today because we wanted to play the game on our terms, which we did,” the head coach said.
“We created 21 attempts to two so we did the right thing there, we just couldn’t finish it off.
“It was good to see the boys not giving up the chase, making sure we play until the 90th minute in the style that we want to play, and they were rewarded for it in the end.”
Palatsides reiterated his strong view on the importance of performance over results, which is a commendable stance to take from the youth coach.
“It’s more important for us to make sure we play the style of play that we want. I think the boys did that,” he said.
“We moved the ball around well – the way that we could keep the [FFA Centre of Excellence] away from their scoring end was very important. We pressed and I think we extended on what we wanted to do last week.
“We wanted to make sure we could put 60-70 good minutes together. I think we put in 90 good minutes today and that was a really pleasing aspect.”
With a massive trip away to the top of the table Brisbane Roar looming, the City coach – whose side currently sits in second place on the NYL ladder – couldn’t be happier with his team’s start to life in the youth league.
“It’s been a good start to the year for the boys. The first game we lost but there were good signs there already that we were on the right track and today was the cherry on the cake.
“I think that’s the most complete effort so far this season and it’s good to see that we’re in Round Three and we’re hitting our straps already.”
“Brisbane have a good youth philosophy, they don’t drop too many senior players in. We’ll take every challenge as it comes and we’ll be looking to continue our good form and then finishing off the games with a win.”
Goodwin Park is the scene for the top-of-the-table NYL clash between Brisbane Roar and Melbourne City. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:30pm and you can follow all the latest with the hashtags #FNYL or #BRIvMCY.