Werribee City coach Nino Ragusa says his side needs to improve its 90 minute performances after an encouraging first-half display against Dandenong on the weekend counted for nothing following a second half fadeout.
After narrow survival last year, Ragusa also hopes that his more experienced Werribee squad can match it with the bigger Premier League sides in 2015, but the Bees’ campaign got off to a stumbling 2-1 defeat against a youthful Thunder at home.
“We were looking to improve on last season. 12 months ago, first game of the season we were thumped 4-0 against Green Gully,” Ragusa said.
“First half we were okay, I thought it was a very even contest. Second half was very disappointing.
“We were happy at half-time. We were happy we were on even ground with a very good, established Premier League side. We didn’t handle that at all last year. 12 months later, we’re better off, but you get that far and the second half is pretty much thrown away.”
While the weekend’s weather – with tropical like weather lashing much of the state – made matters difficult on the pitch, Ragusa admitted that the conditions were not to blame for his side’s second half fade out, but rather an failure to recognise and rectify passages of play that weren’t going to plan.
“Conditions [heat followed by torrential rain] didn’t have anything to do with it. [Dandenong] would have controlled the ball better in wet weather or dry weather,” he said.
“Our game again went wayward in the second half, our football intelligence was terrible.
“You’ve just got to find the answers to the problems that are out there, and I don’t think they [the players] found it.”
Ragusa also refused to blame player turnover for the first up defeat, acknowledging that it was something that every team had to deal with in modern football, and that his side would have to work harder on the pitch in the coming week.
“Every team’s got new faces. That’s the natural thing of football these days. Each squad turns over probably four, five regular starters. Everybody’s in the same boat.
“There’s always work to do with this kind of squad. Always work.”
Werribee City next face a rampant Heidelberg United – who are coming off a 3-0 win over Pascoe Vale – at home, in yet another tough prospect for Ragusa’s men.