Photo: Sonia Licciardi
Dandenong Thunder captain Brendan Elmazovski this week faces the rare task of riling his team up to respond to just a second defeat of the season.
They host Goulburn Valley Suns tonight off the back of a dissappointing team performance, who failed to impose themselves in the 50-50 contests in their 2-1 loss to Box Hill United, their first league defeat.
“Certainly, we weren’t fantastic tonight,” Elmazovski said.
“Second to a fair few balls and it was a game that could’ve gone either way in the end.
“It just wasn’t the Dandenong Thunder that we’ve seen over the last 20 weeks.”
It was nigh on three months since the Thunder’s only other defeat of the season – which came in a Round Five FFA Cup exit to Hume City – before their loss to Pythagoras.
They responded in terrific fashion by putting away title contenders Kingston City 2-1 the game after, with Elmazovski admitting he’s confident the side will bounce back in much the same fashion.
“I just think we probably didn’t show up to the races,” he said.
“That’s going to happen from time to time but I think the test for the group is how we come back now. We have seven games left and we’re still three points clear.
“We’ve just got to take it each game as it comes, still have a fair few games at home so it’ll be interesting to see how the squad bounces back.
“I’m very confident that we’ve got a really good group so full confidence that we’ll bounce back.”
Complacency at the top is an obvious concern for Thunder, especially given their lacklustre performance the week prior as well as two draws in their last six fixtures, which has seen Kingston close to within three points of the ladder leaders.
Elmazovski is happy with where the team is at mentally however, but is also wary of clubs with little to play for this season firing up to face them.
“Certainly not complacent, that’s something that Huss speaks about all the time.
“It’s a mixture of a lot of teams now that don’t have a lot to play for in the last seven games without relegation and they can’t go up.
“Every team naturally wants to knock off the top side, particularly at our ground, we know that we’re the hunted and we just have to deal with that.
“At the end of the day, most teams will come here and try to throw the kitchen sink at us. If they’ve got nothing to lose and nothing to gain from their season, knocking off the team on top is naturally what every team wants to do.”
Elmazovski knows a fair bit about consistency in performance, having not missed a league fixture since 2013.
He’s hoping to encourage his teammates to show the same sort of consistency to hold their lead over Kingston as the season approaches its conclusion.
“Certainly, the last 20 weeks we’ve been in front and it’s been that same two-six point gap for the whole of the season.
“It doesn’t change from our end, one bad game from 28 doesn’t make you a poor side, we’ve just got to get back on the track and apply ourselves, get our structure and discipline back.”
As for the controversy of Box Hill’s first goal to Ben Osei-Safo, Elmazovski admits the ball travelled over the line from his perspective marking the post.
“I think it was over the line to be honest,” he said.
“I had a decent view of it on the post but at the end of the day there’s no point squabbling over whether it was or whether it wasn’t.
“It’s one decision over 90 minutes, over 28 games, there will be decisions that go both ways.
“We’ve been on the end of some fortunate ones and some unfortunate ones so at the end of the day there’s another 89 minutes to get a result, so we won’t let one decision underpin our result today.”