Melbourne Victory youth coach Darren Davies has downplayed the effect the derby atmosphere had on his undermanned squad after they stood firm for a 0-0 draw, without looking too threatening in attack.
He was understanding of his sides inability to fashion anything too testing for the City keeper, and believed the draw was the fair result on the day.
“No I don’t think so, certainly not from our point of view [neither side wanting to concede first hence 0-0],” Davies said.
“Yes, people make a big thing of the derby, but from our point of view, as always we’re just focusing on performance.
“I thought it was a terrific performance all around. I thought the young boys were fantastic. The game was probably even and could have gone either way.
“We had good chances, but neither ‘keeper was really tested, so overall, results-wise it was probably a fair result.”
The coach also stressed how pleased he was with the performance against City, given the age gap between the two sides.
“Against what is a significantly older side than us, those boys are giving away three, four years against them. I thought the boys were magnificent,” he said.
“Obviously, we were significantly younger than them, and the way the boys played we ran out of energy, at one point there was about four of them down with cramp – that’s just a matter of them being physically bigger, stronger and older than us.
“These boys are improving week by week, let alone year by year, so we’re working with them day by day, and I’m very pleased with the way they’ve been going.”
That improvement has culminated in a senior debut for youth product Kieran Dover this season, while Milos Ridesic and Cristian Cavallo have both been around the senior picture without yet seeing game time.
“We’re coming along in leaps and bounds, and the most pleasing thing from today was the performance, but secondly, we’ll have one 17-year-old and two 18-year-old’s sitting on the bench for the first team,” Davies said on Dover, Cavallo and Jordan Brown’s spell with the first team against Sydney FC.
“That’s fantastic for us, for our program, to have such a young side against an older side performing so well, and have a 17-year-old and two 18-year-old’s on the bench this evening.
“That’s absolutely fantastic for Melbourne Victory Football Club and the youth team program.”