RELEGATION LOOMS FOR WARRIORS
IF it was not already, North Geelong is now on the verge of relegation from NPL1, following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Heidelberg United at Elcho Park.
With only one shot on target for the whole match, the meek manner in which the Warriors succumbed to defeat suggested the team has now accepted its fate.
Following Melbourne Knights’ draw on Friday night with Avondale FC, North is now nine points from the relegation playoff spot with six games remaining.
Although Warriors coach Micky Colina was not prepared to make any admissions of surrender in his postmatch comments, the performance told a different story.
“Facing reality and giving up and facing reality and having a crack are two different things. I don’t think the boys have given up,” he said afterwards.
“It (relegation) does look ominous. A lot of teams go through this around the world, but I say to the boys every week, it’s how you apply yourself. It’s a matter of personal pride.
“I’m not going to say staying up is an unachievable task. We’re going to keep fighting.”
Alexandros hit the lead after only four minutes through an unmarked Reuben Way and realistically, the result was only a matter of how many it would score.
After scoring in both fixtures for Ballarat last season, mid-season signing Michael Trigger maintained his goal scoring form against North Geelong, doubling the margin on 33 minutes.
Having to make multiple
saves before the second goal, there was nothing Marko Stevanja could do for the third in the 41st minute. Through on goal, Adrian Zahra had a relatively simple task of rounding him and finishing.
North Geelong’s defending was not the primary issue, however.
It heaped pressure on itself with static movement and hopelessly stretched lines in possession, failing to even string passes together.
The only shot on target it could muster came in the 54th minute, via Andrew Doig’s hastily taken free kick from 30 metres.
Almost playing out as a metaphor for the Warriors’ season, as Doig tried to quickly catch Chris Theodoridis off his line, the ball slowly bobbled towards the keeper.
Causing havoc all game, Heidelberg’s Kenny Athiu punctuated the disparity with his goal in the 77th minute, straight after Stevanja’s hoof forward.
“To go 1-0 down the way we did, it was a bit of an effort to keep everyone up for it, to be honest,” North captain Matt Townley said.
“You try to look for positives in every game, and the only one you could find after going 3-0 down at halftime was that it did not get really ugly.
“We could have played for three hours out there and I don’t think we would have scored. That’s kind of the story of our season, really.”