MetroStars let a two goal lead slip to share the points with White City in a game that could have gone either way in Round 20 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia on Saturday.

The home side certainly started the more brightly, completely dominating the contest in the opening stages scoring two in the space of six minutes.

Metro coach Michael Pirone said he is left disappointed that the dominance did not carry for the entirety of the game.

“Our first 45 was as good as we’ve played for the whole year. It was complete performance and you couldn’t get two more paradoxical sort of halves of soccer; it was the most disappointing thing.”

“The goal just before halftime they pinched was problematic for us, there was always that risk of conceding a second but we missed an opportunity to make it 3-1 which put us under pressure.”

White City’s Michael Keens, said getting a goal before the break was crucial in earning a point.

“It gave us a life line, we started pretty poor and getting one back before half time from a sort of lucky free kick that went in was very important and a good time to score a goal.”

Pirone said apart from conceding the message at half time was to just continue what they were doing in the first half.

The City number 8 felt the momentum had begun to change as they got into the game and thought they could snatch the victory.

“As the game went on we got better, the last 15 minutes of the first half I thought we were okay. The tactical change by Frank who brought on Chad Bugeja who impacted the score with his equalizer.”

“When we went 2-1 I thought we were going to win the game, then when we went 2-all I thought we were definitely going to win but we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

Pirone said although the opposition made it very difficult they were lacking in a few areas.

“We lacked movement, leadership and for the calibre of players they’ve got it really required us to show some cool heads and really I think we didn’t get that.”

“We stopped playing all together and with the quality of players we have it was disappointing that nobody wanted to take the bull by the horns.”

Keens felt coming from behind showed a lot of character from him and his team mates.

“It shows we are as good as any team in the competition. Metro are a good team but you can’t start like that and coming back from 2 goals down shows a lot of character and heart from the players who play for White City.”

The Metro boss agreed it was a fair reflection of his side’s performance.

“We really could have put it to bed in the first 45 but didn’t take our chances and having said that they missed a few late in the game as well.”

Article by Andrew Lodiong - @Andrew_Lodionga