Kingston City coach Nick Tolios has declared this season to be one for development following his side’s 3-1 loss to St Albans Saints.
The Reds have only recorded a solitary win so far after three rounds, but with no fear of relegation breathing down their necks, they have taken the approach of blooding youth in order to have prolonged success in the future in both NPL 1 and NPL.
Tolios believes that this is the approach that will be most beneficial for his City side.
“It’s a learning curve for us,” Tolios said post game.
“We’ve had our brand new start and there’s probably about 14 new players that we picked up this year, a lot of young boys.
“For us it’s a developing year, that’s what we’re trying to achieve – hopefully we unearth a few good talents as well.”
On that note, Tolios was full of praise for young debutant George Maliaras who replaced Sermin Sadikovski in goals.
“For us I think George [Maliaras], the young keeper coming in for his first game, I think he did really well,” Tolios said.
The coach also reserved some words for substitute and goal scorer Kemal Curran, praising both his attitude and work ethic.
“Young Kemal [Curran] who’s stiff not to start tonight came on [and his] attitude was right.
“He’s only 18-19 year old who’s come on. Yes he’s disappointed he didn’t start but he came on and got us back in the game by scoring so I think his work ethic when he came on was brilliant.
“That’s the kind of characters that we build on and the attitude we like in our players.”
Looking on to next round’s match against Richmond SC on Friday night, Tolios will only have one session with his players due there only being a four day gap between fixtures.
The Reds boss has said his priority is making sure all of his players are fit for the contest given the circumstances.
“For us it’s a short turn around,” he said.
“We’ve got a game on Friday night so we’ve only got the one session before the game.
“There’s a lot of bruised and battered boys out there, we’ve copped a few knocks.
“Just recover by Wednesday and then hopefully be up for another tough task away from home to Richmond.”
Kingston City face the task of playing Richmond SC away from home at Kevin Bartlett Reserve. Kick-off is scheduled for 8:30pm on Friday night.