Heidelberg United coach George Katsakis has apologised to the club’s supporters for his side’s sub-par performance in the 6-0 demolition by South Melbourne yesterday afternoon.
South Melbourne were clinical in front of their home crowd at Lakeside Stadium, with a first half Nick Epifano hat-trick stealing the limelight, but Kastsakis has vowed to focus on the positives in order to rectify the result next week.
“I apologise to our supporters more than anything as they didn’t deserve that,” the head coach said post-game.
“We need to build off that, work out what the positives were and make sure we get that right from now on. More importantly, the amount of goals we conceded wasn’t acceptable so we’ll need to work on that.
“Without creating too much, we got into good areas where we could have. The execution of our last pass could have gotten us into a good situation, so we definitely need to build on that. I’m sure the [players] will bounce back, they’re a good group. Things like this happen in football, it doesn’t happen often but today unfortunately today was our time.”
Despite seeing some points of distinction from the clash – with the scoreline perhaps perfectly reflective of the flow of the contest – Katsakis agreed that it was the worst possible start to their campaign, especially given the three point penalty the club are starting on in 2016.
“Yes, absolutely [it was the worst start we could have imagined],” Katsakis bluntly admitted.
“On the contrary, our season had to get off to a good start rather than a bad start especially given the deficit of the three points. I’ve said earlier that pre-season means nothing, you go undefeated and do all the right things and outplay teams – but when its about points that’s when it counts.
“Today unfortunately we didn’t put up a good enough display and we conceded silly goals, made some crucial mistakes in the wrong areas and they punished us. That’s what it’s about at this level, being punished.”
“We were the better team in the first 20-35 minutes, even despite going a goal down. We kept possession really well but unfortunately we conceded at poor times. Once you go down 4-0 at half-time, it’s very difficult to come back from that, especially a man down, being a keeper at that.”
“You think about the second, third and fourth goal and they were turnover’s in the wrong areas. They’re personal errors that need to be rectified. As an individual, If you can’t get that right, you’re not going to win many games. Unless you’re prepared to put your body on the line and win challenges in the right areas, then you’re going to concede.”
The real turning point was South Melbourne’s fourth goal, which saw Chris Theodoridis given his marching orders for bringing down Matthew Millar.
While there could be no arguments about the penalty awarded itself, there was a case for the referee keeping the red card in his top pocket, with Millar moving away from goals and both Steven Pace and Les Doumbalis in close vicinity of the attacker.
“I actually thought Doumbalis was beyond [Theodoridis] to be honest, I don’t think he was the last man,” Katsakis said.
“The referee has seen it that way and you can’t challenge it. Those are the way things go, you have to accept it and move on.”
The Bergers will hope to make a swift comeback next week against the Melbourne Knights, but may have to do so without a wealth of playing talent.
Lewis Hall got minutes on his comeback game, appearing off the bench in the second half while still mending a broken toe suffered in a pre-season match against Oakleigh Cannons.
Andreas Govas departed the pitch after 40 minutes, having carried a niggling injury into the contest, while Kaine Sheppard also took a knock to the left leg, which will be assessed throughout the week.