Box Hill United skipper Michael Godfrey has admitted the 3-1 loss to Dandenong Thunder on the weekend is a set-back for their NPL2 East ambitions, but has paid testament to the characters within the side to bounce back next week.
Dandenong were the superior side on the day and crafted a number of good opportunities across the 90 minutes, with a few more individual errors from United not capitalised on Thunder, which could’ve seen the scoreline extended by more than the two goals.
Godfrey believes there’s plenty of time to fix those small mistakes in the unerring search for perfection.
“Obviously we don’t want to make those errors but it’s early in the season and the type of football that we want to play is to keep possession and rotate through the midfield,” Godfrey said.
“It’s not going to be perfect all the time; we aim for perfection but it’s not going to be like that. Yes, it’s concerning but I don’t think that it’s anything to be tearing our hair out about.
“We’ll get better as the year goes on and we’ll get back to it on Tuesday and get better again.”
He admits the performance is a set-back after two consecutive wins – after a narrow 2-1 Opening Round loss to Kingston City – which saw Box Hill sitting in fourth place ahead of the week’s fixtures.
“Of course [it sets us back], you don’t want to lose any game,” he said.
“I thought we came into the fixture well prepared, it was a slow start to the season against Kingston but I think we built on that. Each week we got better.
“Today, particularly in the first half, I thought we took a step backwards. We didn’t do all the things we could’ve done right.
“In the second half, credit to the boys, we came out a lot better and looked to dictate the tempo. It was just a few errors that let us down and then our finishing could’ve been better.
“I think every time you have a set back, you want to bounce back and that puts a bit more pressure on you.
“We’re good enough to deal with that and we’ll bounce back no problems. I’ve got confidence in the boys, we worked hard and like I said, each week we’ll get better and better.
Photo: Sonia Licciardi