Warriors back in the swing
NORTH GEELONG 2 MURRAY UTD 0
NORTH Geelong is riding the highs of a new-found sense of belief after making it two wins on the trot, resurrecting its NPL2 season.
Saturday’s 2-0 win over the struggling Murray United has helped the Warriors stay in touch with the league’s topthree promotion contenders, with some much-needed consistency starting to drift into the Warriors’ play.
With Damien Peters leaving the club midweek and Michael Boyar still out with suspension, the Warriors had a makeshift midfield unit, with Andreas Miltiadou stepping up to the defensive midfield role.
The match was controlled by the Warriors’ solid defensive structure, with interim manager Nathan Rogers implementing a higher defensive line to counter United’s desire to attack through long balls.
“We had to step up our line. To step up our backline you have to step up your defensive line to their defensive third,” Rogers said. “If we can put pressure on them up higher, then they can’t play the long ball over the top.”
Miltiadou was impressive in his ability to cut off United’s decisive passes, with Nicholas Teichmann slotting into centre back to allow Miltiadou to play higher up the pitch.
“Dre (Miltiadou) is a natural defensive midfielder,” Rogers said.
“I call him the ‘rock’ now because he’s just solid, nothing came through his line.
“I think Teichmann stepped up well. He was really nervous, he stepped out of his comfort zone, but as coaches you have to challenge your players to step out of their comfort zone.”
An early goal to Julien Cassano — Peters’s midfield replacement — calmed the nerves of the players after a frantic first 15 minutes.
“The first 15 minutes — I could go in there and bang their heads together,” Rogers said.
“We started to settle down, we finetuned that at halftime with a few things we needed to fix and I think the second half was phenomenal.”
Jamie Noggler was sensational off the bench, giving the Warriors an extra assertion of pace and drive in the final 15 minutes. A classy flick on from Thomas Hidic resulted in Darius Madison finding himself in behind the United defence, calmly finishing and sealing an important win.