NTC assistant coach Anthony Frost was not too downhearted with his team’s performance against Cairlea, despite losing 2-1 to the home side in soggy conditions on Sunday.
After having most of the possession and shots on target, the NTC U17 girls would be wondering just how they still managed to lose, but Frost firmly believed there were more positives to take out of the game than negatives.
“The girls are pretty disappointed and so they should be. We had 21 shots on target to their four, so the effort they put in and the amount of opportunities they created was fantastic, but obviously its something to work on the week ahead,” Frost said.
“But we can certainly take positives out of the performance.”
With Cairnlea making the most of their limited opportunities to pluck the unlikely victory, NTC’s defence may have been susceptible to taking the blame for allowing Cairnlea to take the lead and sit back, but Frost was still pleased with his side’s defensive effort against a more experienced opposition.
“We were quite happy with our defensive effort today. Were always conscious not to over commit players [forward], especially knowing their players are bigger, stronger, quicker,” he said.
“So we decided to drop off a little bit and allow them to come at us, but I believe the players put in a good performance at the back, and should be proud of their efforts.
“Hopefully they continue to work on some of these things and see an improved performance next week.”
The newly promoted NTC mentor, taking over from Joe Montemurro who was asked to take the reigns at Victory women’s, also refused to blame the poor state of the pitch on the result.
“We like to play football, and so does Cairlea, and it always helps when you’re on a nice pitch, but look, both teams have to play on the [same] field,” he said.
“We still try to play our game and its not going to affect us too much, again we created enough to hope wed put a few more away, but it wasn’t meant to be today.”
Frost stressed that despite their lowly position, the side was not focused entirely on results, and development was still key for the NTC U17’s, with a strong performance at the national championships being a key objective.
“For us, were obviously a development squad with a group of young girls, but we still want to do well in any competition we play in,” he said.
“We’d hope that the chances we create we put more goals away and we can hopefully get the results.
“Our end goal is the national championships where these girls can have the opportunity to play against other states and other girls in their age group.
“That’s going to be our number one test in what we work towards, but naturally everyone wants to do well, and the girls are disappointed with their performance, but at the end of the day its about more the girls development than the results.”