After four rounds of the season, NPL2 West pre-season favourites Moreland Zebras were seemingly at the crossroads after a crushing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Melbourne City.
Fast forward five rounds later and the Zebras are sitting top of the standings after recording five straight victories, the latter of those a comprehensive 4-0 triumph over previous ladder leaders Whittlesea Ranges.
Slovenian midfielder Nejc Kolman opened the scoring in the 11th minute at Epping Stadium before a clinical hat-trick from the in-form Baggio Yousif secured all three points for Danny Gnjidic’s men.
As expected, the 42 year-old was pleased with his side’s overall performance, and in stark contrast to his opposite counterpart Vinko Buljubasic, believes the end scoreline was an accurate reflection of the proceedings.
“You can’t complain when you come away with a 4-0 win in a game like that”, Gnjidic said. “With all due respect to Whittlesea, I thought the scoreline was probably a true reflection of the game.
“We played the way we wanted to and at the level we are capable of. There are certain areas where there is room for improvement needed, but I can’t fault the players today as they executed our game plan and the result looked after itself.”
Throughout much of the 90, the Zebras looked good in transition and dismantled the Whittlesea defence through the attacking energy and pace provided by the likes of Yousif and James Papadimitriou up front.
Gnjidic was full of praise for the exciting 21-year-old post-game, and believes the tricky attacking winger has now found his feet after joining the 2007 VPL Grand Finalists from Brunswick City at the beginning of last season.
“He’s one of those players who is very talented and he has a fantastic attitude. We acquired him as a trialist after performing well against when he was playing for Brunswick in 2014 before making a play for him,”
It took him a little while for him to find his feet but he’s a fantastic kid and I think he is capable of anything. He’s a natural goal scorer who has plenty of pace to burn, a great touch and is a team player as well so the sky is the limit for him.”
Despite losing teenage goalscoring sensation Danny Charalambous to the Bentleigh Greens in the off-season, the Zebras were still expected to push for promotion after a number of notable signings agreed terms with the CB Smith Reserve based-club for the 2016 campaign.
With the likes of Kolman (Heidelberg United), Dean Campelj (Melbourne Knights), Milos Tosic (Adelaide City), Vani Shamoon (Goulburn Valley Suns) and Stefaan Sardelic (Bulleen Lions) walking through the door, expectations were raised that the Zebras could go one better this season and secure automatic promotion.
But a 1-0 home defeat to St Albans in Round 2, in addition to the disappointing result to Melbourne City a fortnight later saw Moreland struggling for early-season consistency.
“We’ve lost two games and in the St Albans loss we were pretty unfortunate to concede a late penalty in a game which could have gone either way,” Gnjidic said.
“Against Melbourne City, we let ourselves down losing 3-0, but our response since then has been at a level expected of us week-in-week-out.”
The former Ballarat Red Devils and Werribee City manager noted the attitude of the players as playing a big part behind the revival which has also seen the Zebras claims big wins against Murray United and Bendigo City, as well as a dramatic stoppage time victory away to Sunshine George Cross.
“This is a proud group of players who took what happened to them last year in missing out on promotion the way we did in the right way” he said.
“The way they have gone about their season and gone into each game with the exclusion of that City game – which we have passed off as an aberration – has been fantastic and the results tell you what they have been able to do.”
The Zebras suffered heartbreak last season when a failure to secure automatic promotion saw them lose their play-off tie 2-1 against a Joey Katebian-inspired Melbourne Victory, with the marksman’s 90th minute strike leaving a bitter blow to the black and whites, who had dominated much of the contest.
Gnjidic affirms that promotion is the ultimate goal in his fourth season at the Zebras, and confirms this objective has been set within the club’s dressing room.
“Absolutely, and it’s not just my goal but also the entire playing squad”, said the 2000 Bill Fleming Medalist.
An added motivator for the Zebras is their desire to clinch such an achievement together with the likes of Yousif and Papadimitriou staying loyal to the cause, despite the manager’s initial fears that the two could have departed for newer horizons following the end of last season.
“In that chat we had after the Victory game, I mentioned that we may lose a number of players such as the likes of Baggio and James Papadimitriou, in addition to a couple of others,” Gnjidic said.
“But as I said to someone last week, these players want to achieve success at this club, play NPL with this club and would like to do that together.
“We have added some players to the squad while retaining the core and they’re going about their football the right way and hopefully the will be a recipe for success come seasons end.”
A strong contingent of away support was present in the stands at Epping Stadium, and with results on the pitch looking good, Gnjidic and the Zebras might feel like the time is right to make a return to the top flight for the first time since 2012 after the heartbreak of last year’s near miss.