Green Gully coach Slobode Stojcevski has reiterated that his side can’t make progress if it doesn’t perform for a full 90 minutes, following a 4-3 loss to Melbourne Knights on Sunday, which served as a tale of two halves.
The visitors looked down and out after heading into the break trailing 4-0, but rallied in the second period to score three goals, eventually falling agonisingly short of a miracle draw.
The Gully coach was incensed with his side’s start to the game, immediately forced on the back foot after conceding two soft goals via an underhit backpass and a failed clearance from a cross.
“Just the basic errors that we made – the first two goals we gifted were absolutely poor, poor quality,” Stojcevski said.
“I wasn’t happy with the first half in terms of quality, gifting two goals, and then confidence went down and we continued to make mistake after mistake for the whole half.
“It was a very poor first half from the Gully team.”
Sitting comfortably in mid-table with only a slim chance of relegation – and the contest unlikely to have much bearing on the club’s overall NPL standing – Stojcevski was disappointed that a half-time tirade was required to motivate his players, but was encouraged that his side was able to play out the remainder of the game with greater urgency.
“We were playing for pride out there today,” he said.
“Green Gully is a proud team, and that just wasn’t a Green Gully team playing in the first half.”
“I don’t think you want to hear what I said [to the players at half time].
“Certainly, we executed the game plan in the second half, but when you give away a four goal headstart, that’s just not good enough.”
The respected clubman and former under 20‘s coach, who replaced Aaron Symons in May after a run that saw the club sit in 11th with only three wins and the most goals conceded in the competition, has overseen a slight improvement in fortunes, with the club now sitting in 9th spot with eight wins.
However, results have still been mixed under his tenure, and the mentor believes the club can only build on a game plan if it shows consistency in its performances, which he believes is not yet being achieved.
“It’s important to make that sort of statement because if you go in losing a game at 4-0, and then you’re playing Port Melbourne [who sit in a similar position on the ladder] next week, what have you got to build on?” he said.
“I don’t like using that term each week – that we’ve got something to build on – if you keep losing, because that’s not good enough.”
Green Gully host 10th placed Port Melbourne on Saturday, with only two points separating both sides and relegation survival not yet mathematically guaranteed for either.