United hands out lesson

April 7 2014

Shepparton News

Melvyn Wilkes struggled to find the words that best summed up his Goulburn Valley Suns’ performance against Heidelberg United on Saturday night.

The Suns went down 6-2 to a good Heidelberg side that was aided in its cause by a number of costly turnovers.

Rudi Saglam was given his first start in midfield alongside Stipo Andrijasevic, who moved from up front last week to a deeper position, and Kristian Sarkies, while Fahed Alghazaly started at right back.

It all started so well for the Suns, who went 1-0 up in the opening five minutes courtesy of a Craig Carley penalty after Ben Clark was fouled in the box.

However, what should have been a moment of great encouragement became the exact opposite.

The Suns withdrew and conceded the initiative — which was ruthlessly punished by Heidelberg’s potent front third.

The deeper the Suns sunk into their defensive third, the more time on the ball United enjoyed in possession, and with Mark McGough and Jeck Petrie pulling the strings in the middle behind the menacing strike duo of Kaine Sheppard and Daniel Heffernan that could only mean trouble.

Petrie levelled the scores when he tucked the ball away from inside the box following a whipped free kick which fell kindly for him following an initial knockdown, before Heffernan gave Heidelberg the lead with a strong header following a promising response from the Suns.

McGough made it 3-1 shortly after, prompting Wilkes to move to a back three — releasing Alghazaly into midfield — to try and commit more numbers forward.

It almost served its purpose instantly when Clark got to the byline and found Hernan Espindola with a delightful cut-back, but the youngster’s shot was straight at Heidelberg keeper Griffin McMaster.

Any hope of a comeback was extinguished shortly after the restart, when Heidelberg took full advantage of some poor defending to go 5-1 up in the space of 10 minutes courtesy of goals through Sheppard and Kosta Kanakaris.

Sheppard got his second midway through the second half, before Carley converted his second penalty of the evening with the last kick of the day to round off the scoring.

Wilkes said emotions were high in the dressing room after the final whistle.

‘‘I honestly think as soon as we got the goal early doors we surprised ourselves,’’ Wilkes said.

‘‘As soon as we got it, shock set in and we just dropped right off. The game plan was working for that first five minutes and after that it disappeared.

‘‘I said to the lads it wasn’t a case of lambasting them at half-time, but I said at half-time the next goal would be crucial because it would get us back in it or it would end it and we saw the result of it and that was disappointing.’’

Wilkes said the game was not discussed in-depth after the final whistle.

‘‘Emotions are high and it’s the wrong time to speak about where things potentially went wrong and lads who could have done better,’’ Wilkes said.

‘‘We’ll speak about it (tonight) and where we need to tighten up. I’ll show the players the video — because that doesn’t lie and we have to eradicate these mistakes and be better for it.’’

Heidelberg coach George Katsakis said he was delighted with his team’s performance.

‘‘We planned for a particular way of playing and it all worked out for us,’’ Katsakis said.

‘‘I think it’s very important that we understand that we showed a lot of character after going a goal down in the first minute and our intensity was just superb.’’