Following Northcote City’s loss to Bentleigh Greens in Saturday’s Major Semi Final, coach Goran Lozanovski was disappointed with his side’s inability to execute their gameplan, though he refused to use the week off as an excuse for the defeat.
The Northcote coach felt his side were not the best team overall on the day, though a strong enough first half performance provided some positives to take into the preliminary final against South Melbourne on Sunday.
“I think we didn’t play to our strengths today and we were pretty narrow, too naive and got caught out by a better team,” Lozanovski said.
“I think we played quite well in the first half. We weren’t that bad were we? It was quite an even first half, we probably had a bit more possession in the sense. I think their tactics were more about sitting back and trying to catch them on the counter attack and they probably did that a few times.
“I think the positives were we did what we had to do in the first half, quite well defensively but I think offensively we were a little bit off where we were meant to be.
“But in the end I suppose some of their individuals just had a bit more spark than our boys, created some opportunities and they scored them.”
Northcote were put to the sword by Bentleigh livewire Ryan de Vries, who popped up to score two crucial goals despite a relatively subdued performance.
Lozanovski acknowledged the winger’s contribution, praising him for doing what he needed to do to send his team to a grand final.
“It’s just one of those things, he gets paid to do that, create and score. Tonight, he obviously didn’t create much but in saying that got himself onto a cross, scored, got himself onto a header so he’s still done his job,” he said.
“If I was Johnny A (John Anastasiadis) right now I’d be still excited with him even though he didn’t really create much. He got himself into the box and scored goals. He’s still a dangerous player, he’s one of those players that as long as he’s on the park he’s always going to create havoc.”
As for the drop in intensity from his side in the second half, Lozanovski refused to accept the week off had an adverse effect on the squad.
“Now that we’ve lost people will sit there and go maybe the intensity wasn’t as high as what it should’ve been the last couple of weeks but I’m not going to use that as an excuse and now the players are pretty fit as it is,” he said.
“I suppose being a major semi final we may have got the best out of them tonight. They probably would’ve been trying too hard instead of actually playing games.
“Week off or not, there’s still a football game to be played out there, and it’s 90 minutes so the players wouldn’t take that as an excuse, I don’t take that as an excuse that’s for sure.”
Should Northcote beat South Melbourne and make it to the Grand Final against Bentleigh, Lozanovski believes his side will have the goods to come out on top.
“We’ve played Bentleigh for the last couple of years, maybe three years and we’ve had the wood on them,” he said.
“It was always going to come to a stage where you’re probably going to lose that game eventually so I’d rather lose to them now and play them next week if we do and make sure we don’t lose that game.
“Bentleigh is Bentleigh, we know what they’re all about, they’ve got some great individuals in that team and they’re worthy winners tonight.”