Melbourne Victory coach Dave Edmondson has cautioned against getting too carried away after the 6-0 win against Newcastle Jets, though he did feel the side was gelling well together.
The win made it three successive victories for the club and has propelled last season’s runners-up to the top of the Westfield W-League table.
Edmondson feels that though the side have improved a lot since the start of the season, there are still some little problems to iron out.
“We’re getting there, it’s not there yet,” Edmondson said.
“We’re still forcing little things a bit when we don’t need to and not quite being patient enough.
“It’s improving, a little bit difficult to tell today obviously, a comfortable win can trick you a little bit.
“It’s going to be very different against Sydney next week, we’ll be under a lot more pressure and it won’t be as easy for us to keep the ball and to be as patient as we were at times today.
“It’s definitely better but we’ll know next week how much better.”
One of the main reasons for the improvement in performances has been the arrival of international players Jess Fishlock and Jessica Samuelsson in the last couple of weeks.
Swedish fullback Samuelsson has made quite an impression on Victory supporters, with her tireless running up and down the flank creating many dangerous openings against Newcastle.
Edmondson had nothing but praised for the Swedish international, and indicated his delight with the qualities she brings to the club.
“Since [Samuelsson] came in she’s been fantastic for us,” he said.
“She gives us a real balance with Steph [Catley] on the left then Jess on the right.
“She’s played really well since she arrived and hopefully that continues.”
While the late arrivals could be attributed to Victory’s slow start to the season, the lack of a solid pre-season for the full squad was also a factor, but Edmondson did not want to use that as an excuse for their level of performance in that first game.
“It was a difficult start with some players coming in quite late and even the local league competition finishing literally a week before W-League starts, and probably had five or six girls in that final game,” he said.
“I’m not making excuses, we weren’t good enough against Sydney [in Round 1] and we will certainly need to be better next week.”
Looking ahead to the clash away in Sydney, Edmondson is adamant that taking three points is the only target for Victory.
“We’re certainly going for three points and that’s what we’ll be looking for,” he said.
“It would be pointless if we were going for anything else so we think we can, we think we’ve got the players to do that both in terms of balance and seeing today the attacking threats that we’ve got all over the pitch really.
“They’ll be on a high after their successes in Japan and it’ll be a tough game for us.”