It’s the situation Goulburn Valley Suns coach Craig Carley finds himself in after the outfit returned from Larissa Reserve with a point in the bag despite dominating North Sunshine Eagles on Saturday.
Carley was dumbstruck as to how the match ended even, hinting his side held all the cards in the second half, but couldn’t quite throw down a winning hand in the latter stages.
“To be honest, we were certainly the better team,” Carley said.
“It was quite an even first half, we went in 1-0 down from a goalkeeper error, but I don’t think we ever looked in any sort of danger at any stage.
“In the second half we absolutely hammered them, we peppered them and I don’t know how we haven’t scored more than one goal.
“We hit the crossbar a couple of times, their keeper made a few brilliant point blank saves, so I can’t fault any of the effort or application from the boys, they gave absolutely everything to get the win ― it’s just one of those games where we haven’t managed to put it to bed.”
The Suns, unbeaten in the six games leading into the Eagles clash, held a fair share of the early ball and looked to be making great headway towards another win.
Rather, that was the case until calamity struck just before the half.
A stray pass from goalkeeper Jake Angelovski found the feet of North Sunshine’s striker, who passed it to lethal finisher Nick Epifano who couldn’t miss from close range.
Carley rearranged the magnets at half-time and it paid dividends as the chances began to flow.
Striker Russell Currie was cut down on his way to goal in the 68th minute and the Eagles were reduced to 10 men as a result, with the equaliser arriving in the following exchanges.
Jake Brocklebank took flight to meet Adam Gatcum’s delightful free kick bent into the box from out left, meeting it with his head to level the pegging.
Added pressure was heaped on by the Suns, but Eagles custodian Alex Coumailleau had other thoughts as he denied Carley’s forward line time and time again to secure his side a point.
“We slightly tweaked it tactically at half-time and went man for man in the middle and that was huge in terms of winning individual battles,” Carley said.
“From the very first whistle of the second half we were boxed in their half consistently.
“We’ll certainly play a lot worse and get more for the rewards as the season unfolds, but it was a really pleasing performance.”
The Suns have conceded just 10 goals from the first eight games, making it the league’s second best defence on paper.
It’s a far cry from the 68 goals shipped during last year’s campaign, with the added personnel providing a kind of defensive surety which will go a long way in the race for promotion.
“We invested heavily in that area in terms of getting players like Greg Nash back and the import (Joe Adoo-Peters) and Geordie Lelliott,” Carley said.
“We’ve got some great depth in that position; we’ve got other youngsters like Caleb Enders who played midweek and was awesome there, you’ve got Tutu Taya, Marcus Thomas has been playing at right back recently, so the depth there is excellent.
“But it doesn’t just start from there, the defensive effort starts from the front.
“It’s been really important that we tightened up defensively this year and I think the boys have all done exceptionally well and the team have bought into the philosophy and style that we want to play.”
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