Dandenong Thunder coach Dean Hennessey maintains his side can overcome their recent form slump and learn from their respective losses as the Thunder gear up for a tough challenge against Bentleigh Greens on Saturday.
Hennessey’s men are sitting in 10th place on the NPL ladder after their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Melbourne Knights last round – their fourth loss in five games.
Speaking on the result, coach Hennessey was disappointed and said his “unravelling” side needed to address their issues down back, most notably their weakness in defending set pieces.
“Very disappointed [with the result],” Hennessey said.
“The general play’s alright but [we] can’t defend set pieces … no matter what personnel we’ve had out there, it’s been our Achilles heel all season.”
“We’re unraveling from a really, really good start – it’s at both ends, we’re giving too many things away at one end and we’re not taking the opportunities and the chances we create at the other and that’s a recipe for getting no points and that’s where we’re at,” he added.
Hennessey maintains that increased effort is the key to success for his young side as they aim to correct errors in their playing style before welcoming John Anastasiadis’ fourth placed Bentleigh Greens side to George Andrews Reserve.
“It’s down to hard work,” the Thunder boss said.
“It’s concentrating on the areas we’re not doing well – we’ve got to fix them, we’ve got to rehearse them, we’ve got to work on them and until we correct them, [our form] won’t change.
“You can’t keep coming back from building mountains and then trying to get over them … it’s just impossible.”
In lieu of the final scoreline, the Thunder boss was pleased with the performances of young guns Matt Millar and Kieran Dover and reserved sympathy for goalkeeper Zeneli.
“When you lose 4-1 it’s hard to highlight a lot of points but I think those two (Millar and Dover) gave a good account of themselves and also Ilir Pali – I thought he did really well and he’ll get another opportunity next week,” he said.
The Thunder defenders will have their work cut out for them this round as they prepare to face a Bentleigh attack that is looking increasingly dangerous with a number of potent attackers including David Stirton (coming off a hat-trick against Werribee City) and star signing Ryan De Vries.
Dandenong’s run of disappointing results has not diminishing their belief, with Hennessey remaining confident that his side’s fortunes will soon improve.
“In football things turn quickly – this bad spell will turn as quickly as the good spells we’ve had,” he said.
“A lot of it is our own making so if we can fix some of the problems, stay together, work hard together – the only way you’re going to get out of this is working hard on the track, learning the things that we need to improve.
“I’m confident we can do that.”