Heidelberg boss John Kyrgios waxed lyrical about the team effort that went into Monday night’s blockbuster 3-2 win against the improving Sandrinham SC.
A late, late goal to new signing and substitute Maggie Eudes settled the contest for the Warriors but the win was set up by a combatant midfield three that piled the pressure on Sandy.
Kyrgios was understandably happy with the impact not just of those starting the game, but the five players that came off the bench too, including the match winner.
“To be honest I thought – and that’s what I said when I went in [the rooms] today – I was very proud of them today because it wasn’t only the 11,” the head coach said.
“It was actually the squad, and we’ve got a bit of depth in out squad and I think the game changer in the end was the fresh legs that came on. It was really a fantastic squad effort.
“Kendra [Jones] came into [the squad] and she scored. Laura [Di Clemente] – who is a striker – she hasn’t scored yet but she came into that dangerous area, she got a penalty for us.
“Maggie [Eudes], who has just signed, came on with fresh legs and she scored the winner for us. I don’t want to pin point on one particular person because it was just a fantastic team effort today, or squad effort to be honest.”
Things didn’t all go Heidelberg’s way and despite netting the opening goal of the contest, saw that lead overturned by the 50th minute mark as Nicola Prins netted two for the visitors.
“I thought after they scored early on, we went a bit flat so we made some substitutions and got some fresh legs on and then we really tried to push high up the field,” Kyrgios said.
“Obviously they lost a player with a red card and I think the vocalness in me came out in terms of trying to get them going again so if that’s what it takes to get them going, I’ll be doing it every time.
The Bergers coach elaborated on the decision to send off Sandy forward Emma Runnalls, admitting it was a game changer.
“It obviously helped us, because they were stretching us in the first half, the two centre-forwards doing their diagonal runs out.
“We planned for how we were going to correct that problem in the second half so it did help but having said that, I still think that with the substitutions that we’ve made, we actually fought hard for the result and it finally fell towards us.
“We really fought for everything we got there.”
On the comeback aspect of the game, Kyrgios was delighted with the way the girls responded to the challenge of going a goal down, labelling the win as an “emotional” one for the club.
“It was great to see that even though we went down, we came back,” he said.
“It was a bit emotional, the comeback, and for us as we talked about it before the game, that was a six pointer for us.
We really needed to win that game if we were going to drive and get into those finals.”