Dandenong Thunder coach Huss Skenderovic assures that his side will not get ahead of themselves after continuing their perfect start to the PS4 NPL2 season after defeating Sunshine George Cross at home on Saturday afternoon.
Despite falling behind in the first half, Dandenong opened their scoring through Veton Korcari before Brandon Barnes put away a trio of goals to lock in the win for Dandenong. A solid outing saw Skenderovic’s men looking in settled in defence and dangerous going forward.
The victory makes it five wins from five games for Dandenong and the Thunder will hope to carry that momentum throughout the next few rounds. In previous seasons, inconsistent form seemed to be Dandenong’s downfall but Skenderovic says his side will not get carried away with their unbeaten run.
“We’re extremely happy with the start – it’s about creating momentum and keeping it going for as long as possible,” he said.
“We wont get ahead of ourselves by any means, we’ll just take one game as it comes but the principles and what we do as a team will continue to be the same.
“We just can’t predict anything … it’s a long year,” he added.
Thunder’s forward pressure was on display as their attackers ran rampant – scoring four goals and taking the team’s season tally to 19 goals. Thunder’s depth could be the key to the side’s success this season with attackers Veton Korcari and Brandon Barnes stood up well in the absence of in-form striker Amir Osmancevic who looks set to return next round.
Skenderovic was especially pleased with Brandon Barnes – who opened his scoring account for the Thunder – and says the frontline will definitely be an area of focus heading into the next few rounds.
“We knew of his quality, [Brandon Barnes] is a foreign visa player so he’s great in front of goal and we do have a lot of options there … it just showed today the depth that we have in our team,” the Thunder coach said.
“For a player to play there and score a hat trick is fantastic. We said to him, you find one goal then more will come – today he got the monkey off his back and they just started flowing.
“I think we’re very solid across the back and particularly in midfield but we’ll just make sure that we put the right players in place to play the game that we want to play and that’s just a very attacking brand of football … that’s why we score so many goals in a short space of time,” the Thunder coach added.
The game against Sunshine was overshadowed by news of potential FFV sanctions against Dandenong Thunder but Skenderovic says his players were only focused on winning and says whatever decision Football Federation Victoria makes, the Thunder will hold their heads up high.
“We did the right thing by approaching the federation to alert them that what was going on when it came to our attention – we never did anything wrongfully,” he said.
“I think it’s the process within this situation that was wrong. We just have to go back to the FFV, to the tribunal and try and sort the mess out. Even if they do take the three points away from us, that’s their decision.
“We know where everything stands and we hold our heads up very high and respect the righteousness of what we do as a club – if they choose to do that, they’re the ones that have to live with creating that anarchy amongst clubs in the federation.
“If they [deduct points] we’ll come back stronger and get those points back by beating every team that we can,” he added.
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