Photo: Steve Starek/MKFC
Melbourne Knights coach Andrew Marth acknowledged that a lack of experience was the undoing of his side, as they exited the FFA Cup with a 3-1 defeat to Green Gully.
In the latter stages of the contest at Knights Stadium, a series of errors saw the hosts go down a man, after Damien Miskulin was sent off for a second yellow for clipping live-wire Nick Krousoratis, before Nikola Jurkovic gave away a penalty just minutes later to effectively seal the tie.
“Fundamental errors, and we’ve copped it over the last few weeks, in particular our back four have been well below par,” Marth said.
“We gave young Damien Miskulin another opportunity today and two yellow cards in the vicinity of 20 minutes obviously was the done deal for us, then Nikola gives away a penalty and I thought Milan [Batur] gave the first goal away.
“Immaturity at the end has probably cost us the game. A lot of young players, and you can’t rely on young players week-in, week-out.
“That’s been our motto all year to produce young kids and when going into [FFA Cup] football, you probably need more experience than what we had.
“In saying that, a couple of our experienced players were down on my expectations and probably their expectations. It clearly showed out there today, but in hindsight I think we started exceptionally well.
“Their keeper pulled off a couple of good saves and we probably could have been up 2-0, then the game would be different. When you play against experienced players, they never give up and it clearly showed towards the latter part of the game.”
It was Liam Boland conversion from the spot that effectively wrapped Gully’s passageway through to the Quarter Finals with the visitors third of the night.
The exit was a bitter pill to swallow for Marth and the Knights, whose 2016 season is now officially over after having failed to make the NPL finals with a young side at his disposal.
While he was able to help facilitate an environment shaped to foster young talent development throughout the year, the head coach has said things need to change if the club want to be competing for top honours.
“It depends what the club wants to be. Obviously this club prides itself on results and we’ve produced probably the best players in the country, but we fell well short today.
“If we had two-three more experienced players, I can assure you it would’ve been a different game. The club direction is to produce young kids, not spend too much money on players.
“Ben [Surey] was the heart and soul in the middle of the park so he was a huge loss for us. James [McGarry] has stepped up to a certain degree and young Nikola [Jurkovic] and [Anthony] Dezic, so you’re talking about kids that are 17 and 18 respectively.
“I thought Nikola did an exceptional job today, while a couple of our experienced players were way below par and didn’t show enough leadership qualities that we expect at this club.
“They’re only going to get better aren’t they? If you throw any kid in a senior environment, you would want to think that they’d improve.
“A prime example is Nick Glavan who left Melbourne Victory youth team. We brought him across and I think he’s been one of our best players this year.
“Jurkovic has stepped up from North Geelong last year and Dezic promoted from our youth team this year. It’s a credit to Melbourne Knights, but if you want to win Championships and go as far as possible, they you’ve got to get a bit more experience in the team and that showed today.
“We’ll look at the off-season and get a bit more experience, but it’s more so the club’s direction and what they want to achieve. We’ll see what happens with myself and Frank Juric, but time will tell.”