Cairnlea coach Riccardo Marchioli was a relieved man seeing his team recover from a 7-1 loss to Heidelberg last week to beat the NTC girls at home on Sunday.
Despite allowing the opposition to have most of the ball, the home side was more clinical in attack, going ahead twice and holding on for a 2-1 win.
With a bumpy pitch and soggy conditions hampering any chance of fluent football, Marchioli believed the result could have gone either way, but was pleased with the result nonetheless.
“On a ground like that it can go either way. Both teams are trying to play football. It doesn’t always come off in those sorts of conditions,” Marchioli said.
“Huge respect to what ‘Pep’ [Joe Montemurro] – and now Frosty [Anthony Frost] in the last couple of weeks – have done at the NTC, because jeez they move the ball around well.
“They pushed our defensive structure to its absolute limits, and they were probably unfortunate in that first half to not come away with more. But that’s what happens.
“In conditions like that it can go either way.”
The Cairnlea mentor was most pleased with his players’ ability to back up from a 7-1 thumping the previous week, believing some soul searching at the club went a long way and new faces at the club helped lift the overall morale.
“We did quite a bit of soul searching at the club and we had a number of new faces come in and promoted a couple of girls from the reserves, but we made sure to select girls that were hungry and eager to be here,” he said.
“We just shifted a couple of girls in our structure and it made a huge difference.
“The interchange helped us to stay on top of things but the main difference from last week was attitude.
“The new players that came in also really added to the dynamic of the squad, they picked themselves up and the rest of the squad up, and they really helped the girls to hold on.
“Our new signing at the back, Natasha Rooney, was quite solid.
“In terms of standouts, I have to say Emily Thomas, our central defender was absolutely everywhere and put in a really good performance.”
With both teams entering the contest in equal 9th place and one win each, Marchioli was adamant that the focus was on performance rather than results, and ensuring the players were enjoying their football and constantly learning.
“We had a clear vision [going forward]. There is a clear top half and bottom half in this league, and if we can be competitive in all our games, I’m happy with that,” he said.
“As long as the girls are enjoying their football and we retain then and keep them playing football that’s the most important thing., because it’s not nice being in the trouble we were in last week.
“As long as the girls feel they are learning something, and to keep them in the sport, and keep the player bases as large as possible, that’s the best thing we can do for them.”