WARRIORS STUCK IN A RUT
NORTH Geelong’s season has spiralled further south after a 3-0 loss to Moreland City.
Interim manager Nathan Rogers could only watch from the grandstand after his suspension for verbal abuse in the under20s match last week, with club legend Josip Skoko taking the reins.
The Warriors went into the game without American recruit Darius Madison after he was dropped to the under-20s to find some match fitness, with youngster Tom Hidic again given the nod for the central striker role.
Winning 50-50 contests had been an issue for the Warriors, but inspiring early tackles from Michael Boyar, Andreas Miltiadou and Ryan Oppermann indicated the players were ready to put a tough week behind them.
An inexperienced attack and a lack of clear direction in their movement, however, hindered the Warriors’ forward momentum, meaning their defensive unit was always going to struggle to contain multiple attacks on goal.
Rogers said fixing his side’s defence had been the main focus so far in his short tenure.
“We need to fix our defence, that’s pretty clear,” he said. “I think as an overall group you can see there is a lack of communication because when we get pressed high with the ball, we get dragged out of shape, and there’s no communication to fix the shape.
“We need to get that defensive structure right but understand that it needs to be a forward structure because we don’t want to sit back and let teams come at us.”
Moreland broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark through a run out wide, stretching the Warriors’ defence, allowing a simple mple tap in by striker ker Apai Uknono. o.
In an all too familiar scenario, the Warriors conceded a second goal soon after and found themselves with ith another significant deficit ficit going into halftime. lftime.
They had a better chunk of possession in the front third in the second half but their persistence with an early aerial cross was cut off easily by the Moreland defence.
Michael Anderson provided a spark when brought on and should find himself back in the starting 11 next week following a groin injury.
A frustrated Michael Boyar was sent off in the dying stages for an aggressive retaliation but the damage was already done for North who face mid-tier team Werribee City next week and on form cannot go in as favourite.
Rogers described the club’s situation as being in a “rut” with hard work and experimenting with some youth the way of out of it.
“We’ve got to get out of this rut. No matter what coaching staff we have, it’s up to the players,” he said.
“We need to secure the club and to secure the club we need to play our youth.”