Werribee hands the Lions 4-0 thrashing

GEELONG’S meteoric rise to the dizzying heights of NPL2 came crashing down with a resounding thud on Saturday night, after a comprehensive 0-4 thrashing at the hands of Werribee City at Galvin Park.

The humbling result provided first year Lions coach George Karkaletsis and his newlook squad with a reality check, with the Geelong boss labelling the season opener as an embarrassment to both him and his players.

“I guess there were two different levels of football being played out on the park,” lamented Karkaletsis.

“We were slow and lacked both passion and determination.

“We conceded an early goal and that in turn saw a bit of a mental breakdown with the players as they just seemed to drop their heads.”

Werribee’s Alec Goodwin provided the home side with the best possible start, slipping away from a stagnant Lions defence and finding the back of the net as early as the second minute.

“We have been conceding early goals throughout the preseason and that is definitely something we need to address right away,” Karkaletsis said.

The Bees doubled their lead in the 27th minute when Jake Butler scored the first of his brace for the afternoon.

The Lions found themselves 0-2 down at the break, but the score could quite easily have been double that if not for the brave heroics of young goalkeeper Dylan Nikolovski.

Unfortunately, the Lions’ shotstopper should have done better in the 52nd minute when Dion Paola’s close range effort saw the diving Nikolovski allow the ball to rebound off his body and straight back to Paola, who easily rounded the prostrate Geelong ‘keeper and calmly guided the ball home for the Bees’ third goal.

Butler rounded off the rout with a converted penalty in the 61st minute.

“Talking to the Werribee coach after the game, he openly said we had caught them on a good day, which offers us some consolation,” Karkaletsis said.

“But in the end, as the old cliche goes, they simply wanted it more,” he said.

Geelong will host A-League club Melbourne Victory’s Youth side at home in a historic NPL2 home debut at Stead Park next Sunday afternoon.