South Melbourne coach Chris Taylor was happy with his side’s application in their 3-0 win over Heidelberg United on Thursday night, and is pleased to get his title campaign off to a good start.
Going into the match against South’s traditional rivals, Chris Taylor was not quite sure what to expect, but was ultimately satisfied that his side came away with the result.
“Being a derby game it was hard to know what we were up against but I thought we started really well,” Taylor said.
“First 10-15 minutes we created chances and then when the first goal went in, it came at the right sort of time and probably could’ve been a few more goals up by half time.
“They made us work hard for it as well which is derby sort of atmosphere, all in all it’s just pleasing to get off to a good start.”
With a new look line-up especially in defence, Taylor was happy with his side’s clean sheet, praising his defence for keeping their shape together well.
“We always felt that if we match their intensity that our quality’s quite good and that was the intention from the start,” he said.
“I was fairly pleased I thought we had god patches of play, I don’t think we were consistent right through the 90 but we did what we had to do and when we weren’t playing that overly well, defensively we were quite sound so that was good.
“It doesn’t matter who scores goals it’s a team game and as much credit goes to the defence for not conceding as well.”
And having got off to the perfect start, Taylor is definitely looking to win the title, and named a few likely contenders for the honour of being the inaugural NPL Victoria champions.
“The same as everyone else, we’d like to win it. But then there’s a few other teams that will want to have a say in that as well,” he said.
“I think Northcote will be there again this year, the likes of Bentleigh, Melbourne Knights, it’ll be the usual suspects so we’ll just take every game as it comes and treat opposition with respect.”