It was a mixed bag of emotion for Box Hill United manager Greg Kassidas, who admitted he rode a rollercoaster in his side’s 3-3 draw with St Albans Saints.
Having seen his side fall to a first half deficit, Kassidas’ charges hit back with a quick-fire treble courtesy of a Rinor Muriqi hat-trick.
The afternoon soon soured for Pythagorus as some controversial decisions disrupted the flow of the contest; St Albans capitalising with two goals late in the second half to draw level.
“They are a fairly good team with some goods players, but when the score line is in your favour at 3-1 up at home, you would expect to get on with the job and close the game out or punish them further,” Kassidas said.
“We had them under pressure and should have had two more at 3-1 up. It’s disappointing because we worked hard from 1-0 down to score three goals in 10 minutes and regain control [and shaping] to get all three points.
“I thought the referee lost a bit of control late in the second half with some bad decisions for both teams but credit to all the players keeping their heads.”
Although he was ultimately left disappointed to have seen his side cough up the win, Kassidas was happy with the resolve his charges showed to re-adjust and regain control of the contest; even coming a fingertip away from a winner in injury-time.
“[We’re] disappointed but at the end of the day it was a good performance with some good passages of play, one point is better than none – but we made it hard for ourselves, simple as that.
“We allowed them back in the game with some poor defending but credit to boys who had to work extremely hard for a couple of minutes to stop the run St Albans had,” he said.
“It’s very easy to concede when that happens, so the boys did well to settle things down and keep the ball with some attacking moves that could of won us the game late on.
“For the spectators, the second half and especially the last 10 minutes would have been entertaining, edge of their seats, but we shouldn’t have let it get to that stage.
“St Albans never gave up so credit to the players and their coaching staff.”
Having had 10 rounds to assess Box Hill’s progress across the NPL2 season, Kassidas has revealed that the club are looking at the possibility of bringing in recruits, but has re-assured that those within the current club set-up will have first bite of the cherry.
“We’re still not where we want to be. There’s still a few holes to fill. We will continue to mix things up with the extended squad, we definitely have more work to do,” he said.
“We want to stay loyal to boys that are here but we are looking to see what’s out there. We would be silly not to [so you] never say no. We’ve identified what we need and we’ve just got to find the right players within the squad to do the job for us. If not we will have to look outside the club in the window.”
The second half substitution of key player Alex Schroen raised some eyebrows at Wembley Park, although the utility was later spotted with ice around his ankle on the sideline.
Kassidas has played down the seriousness of any potential injury, stating that the substitution was purely a precautionary measure.
“Two weeks ago [Schroen] received a nasty knock but we’re just being cautious with him,” he said.
“His form has been good, his one player that gets moved around from right back to left back or up front, but his natural position is up at forward.
“When we decided to make the change in the backline [to accomodate Nikola Surdoski] it was a no brainer to put Alex up front because of his speed and his leap. He’s a good, loyal player, never says no. He creates problems for teams.
“At 3-1 up, I thought we could take him off, precautionary, get some ice on but it doesn’t always work quite to script does it?”
Photo: Sonia Licciardi