Melbourne Victory youth coach Darren Davies praised his side’s performance after their 2-0 win over crosstown rivals Heart in the youth derby at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday.
Victory left it late to seal the points, with Andrew Nabbout and Jesse Makarounas’ goals coming in the 85th and 91st minutes, respectively.
Speaking after the game, Davies was pleased with his team’s improvement in controlling tempo and holding possession from previous weeks.
“Today we came and we dominated possession, dominated territory, and I was pleased with the boys,” he said.
“Following on from last week, even though we won the game convincingly, we weren’t happy with the performance.
“It’s just about our development, the way that we play… and learning lessons.”
The youth coach said the focus of game was to penetrate a relentless Heart defence, who were willing to sit back, absorb pressure and counter-attack.
“It was a case of breaking them down, all the play was in their half in fairness,” he said.
“They were defensively very structured… they looked dangerous the couple of times they counter-attacked us and we needed to be alert.
“I thought we were very patient, moved the ball around the park and we got what we deserved in the end.”
Davies also emphasised the youth team’s continual focus on emulating the same attacking, possession based game now synonymous with the senior Melbourne Victory side.
“I think everybody knows what we’re about now as a team and as a club. We were keeping possession well, dominating territory,” he said.
Currently juggling his position as youth coach with assisting Kevin Muscat in the senior role, Davies described his recent responsibilities at the club as “very busy” and “full on”.
“I’ve absolutely loved working alongside Kevin,” he said.
“It’s a little bit different from the youth team where we’re so focused on developing players over results, but obviously in the first-team environment the pressure was on to get a result.”
Victory youth’s next game is against Western Sydney at Lakeside on Sunday.