Heading in right direction under Davkovski

Matthew Galea

August 12 2014

Shepparton News

In the aftermath of Saturday night’s 3-1 defeat to Northcote City, coach David Davkovski described the performance as a case of ‘‘two steps forward, one step back’’.

He was right.

The Goulburn Valley Suns looked a shadow of the side that had beaten Green Gully and drawn with Melbourne Knights and Bentleigh Greens in consecutive weeks, but the important thing is two steps forward were taken.

Five weeks ago after another five-goal thrashing at the hands of Heidelberg United, the Suns’ second of the season to the same opponent, the club looked almost without direction, but no-one could accuse the club of being directionless anymore.

Last week proved another testing one off the field, but despite the loss, Goulburn Valley’s character shone through on Saturday night.

Skill error was ultimately the enemy, but work ethic was not compromised.

Nor was diligence in defence and it took two brilliant strikes and one truly well-worked goal — perhaps the only time the Suns’ defence was really cut open — for City to score its three goals.

Davkovski’s brief, as he put it post-game on Saturday, upon winning the job was to “fix the club” and that is a task which cannot be measured on results alone.

Local teenagers Riley Hamilton, Joey Hogarty, Matt Gleeson and Geordie Lelliot, as well as Melbourne-based teen Ardian Vuniqi, have all been asked to play more prominent roles in the first team and have clearly benefited from greater involvement in first team training.

All five have provided at least fleeting glimpses of their potential in senior action and have provided fans with plenty to be excited about for the future, whether that be in the top or second flight of Victorian soccer.

Davkovski’s feat of achieving all this while actually improving on-field results should not be understated.