Avondale Heights head coach Anthony Barbieri has challenged his side to continue playing attractive, attacking football this season, despite suffering a minor setback in its 1-0 loss to Sunshine on Saturday.
After consecutive promotions in Victorian State Leagues and acceptance into NPL1, Avondale rode that wave of confidence into the new season, winning both their NPL1 and Dockerty Cup encounters in previous weeks.
Whilst Barbieri may have felt aggrieved that his team didn’t take another three points against George Cross on Saturday, despite their dominance in possession and territory, he emphasised that such a performance was what he wanted to see more of throughout the campaign.
“Our team had a good game. They’ve got a couple of experienced lads at the back which are quite solid and hard to break down, but we had our chances,” he said.
“We had five, six players out this week so it gave some of the young players a chance and there was one team out there today.
“We played the better football.”
Barbieri maintained that his objective this season was to implement a positive mindset and playing style into his team, regardless of results.
“We just go one week at a time,” he said.
“We put no pressure on ourselves. It’s the first time that this club is at this level and we look to put on good, solid performances.”
On the training pitch, he is continually looking to to instill a playing style based on possession and dominating the opposition.
He was confident that, with enough practice and application, the team’s style would yield positive results on the pitch.
“We look to play football and we’ll continue to try and play an attractive style of football,” Barbieri said.
“[Our emphasis is on] a good, exciting brand of football – [If we play like this] we’ll win more game than we’ll lose.”