Whittaker taking positives from loss heading into another tough clash
CHELSEA Whittaker knows effort will never be an issue for Southern United.
All the team needs now is some more time on the park, a chance to get everybody healthy, and another few games to really start humming under a new coach.
Whittaker has had a purple patch with both Southern United, which won the Covidrejigged series last year, and the dominant Dunedin City Royals club team.
But the classy midfielder is also a realist, and has not spent too much time lamenting United’s rough start to the new national league campaign that featured a 61 loss to Western Springs last weekend.
‘‘It’s obviously been quite a disrupted preseason,’’ Whittaker said.
‘‘But we knew that was just the way it is, and we couldn’t do anything about that, so we planned to just go up there and put everything into it.
‘‘Western Springs were a really classy side. They appear to be kind of peaking. They’d actually beaten Northern Rovers, who won that league, in their last game, so they’re on their way up.
‘‘They were well polished, and you could tell they’d been playing together for a while.
‘‘So it was tough. They were pretty impressive.’’
You look for the positives with a scoreline like that, and Whittaker thought there were some.
‘‘We scored a goal, which was awesome. And it was only 21 at halftime so we’d been creating a few opportunities and holding them out pretty well.
‘‘They were able to bring on fresh legs in the second half, and we didn’t really have that option.
‘‘I thought the effort was there, and we had some really good passages of play.’’
Southern United was already without the influential Shontelle Smith, who has other commitments this season.
The team suffered a second blow when Emily Morison had to leave the game after 15 minutes with a head knock.
‘‘That’s a big, big loss. She’s working on her recovery now so it will probably be a few weeks out for her.’’
Whittaker was impressed with Sam Woolley on debut.
The firstyear student from Wellington put in a good shift on the right wing.
‘‘She was actually out of position, but you wouldn’t have known
it. She played really well and put in some big tackles and did the hard yards out there.’’
Whittaker was also impressed with the new face on the sideline.
New coach Kris Ridley has had little time in the role but he has already made a big impression.
‘‘He’s awesome. He’s got a really good attitude and he’s really good with communication and he fits the culture at Southern United really well.
‘‘It’s been a tough start — I think we only had three trainings with him before the season started — but he’s just tried to keep it really positive and he’s all about creating a good environment for us.
‘‘He has our back, and that’s what you need from a coach.’’
Southern United will need to pull it all together with a tricky assignment for its first game at Logan Park Turf tomorrow.
Auckland United, one of the four club teams that has joined the four regional teams in the national league, is fresh off victory in the Kate Sheppard Cup.
‘‘We know it’s going to be a tough battle. They’ll be tough, and they’ve been together all season.
‘‘But I think the thing with national league is that it’s about who plays best on the day. It’s 90 minutes of football, as much of a cliche as that is.
‘‘As long as we give everything we’ve got, hopefully we can hold them out and put a couple in the net.’’
The game kicks off at 2pm.