The points were never in doubt for high-flying Bundoora United said coaching pair Mark Torcaso and Paul Kilpatrick after their 4-0 victory over promoted Caulfield United Cobras, with the win consolidating their place atop the WPL Victoria table after four rounds.
The first half saw Caulfield valiantly fight to stave off a Bundy unit who moved the ball around with purpose, and despite their first goal taking more than 40 minutes to register, the Bundoora coaching staff weren’t particularly concerned about their start, with Kilpatrick more happy to see chances being created.
“It’s always hard coming off a break – it’s just our final [touch]. Their keeper [Jaye Todd] had a blinder,” Kilpatrick said.
“It was just a matter of when we scored and in that opening 10-15 minutes, we should’ve been two or three up. If they go in, they maybe the floodgates open, but we had to keep grinding.
“But [Caulfield] did alright, they sat deep and defended well. We dominated the game, the girls played well and I thought we knocked the ball around well.
“We would’ve been angry had we not created those chances, but we created a lot. I thought we played well today.”
Torcaso agreed with his coaching partner, admitting that while the chances were there in the first, the finishing wasn’t quite as fine-tuned as they’d have like.
“Like I said to Paul during the game, it never felt nervy because we always thought we were going to score,” Torcaso added.
“Can you say they held us off, or did we make some errors in the final third? Yes, that’s probably more likely.
“From the back, we were good, but in that final third, our finishing wasn’t the best today. But we got the three points and that was important.”
Despite their first half struggle to break the deadlock, Louisa Bisby broke the deadlock with a classy strike on the dawn of half-time.
The Bundoora coaches had plenty of praise for what they described as a good team performance, and assured that their assessment of the front third’s performance wasn’t quite as harsh as their own.
“Even though our forward three didn’t hit the scoreboard as much as they normally would, I thought they all played well,” Kilpatrick said.
“Rachel [Alonso] by her own admission felt she didn’t have one of her better games, but Mark and I disagreed.
“She’s probably too hard on herself. The work rate was good. Even though she was frustrated, she always presented and provided an option for us going forward.”
“I think everyone stood out. Louisa Bisby, Jess Pitts and even Enza [Barilla] when she was on, her tackling was good and she was winning the ball. Elly Curo didn’t have a fantastic game, but when she did stuff, she did it well. Same as Rachel [Alonso],” Torcaso added.
Jess Au was bright on the wing in what was possibly her best performance since making the swap from South Melbourne, and looks to be back to her best after a bad concussion left her struggling in the opening month.
“Jess [Au] has had a bit of an injury for the last four or five weeks, to the point where we gave her two weeks off,” Kilpatrick said.
“Then she’s trained last week and she’s over her injury and you could see today that she was back to her self. Jess was great, but I thought most of the players today had a really good game.”
Photo: Caulfield United Cobras