Bulleen Lions coach Bobby McGuinness has lauded the strength of his squad, despite a heart-breaking penalty shootout loss to South Melbourne in their WPL Major Semi-Final on Sunday evening.
Labelling his squad as “the best in the league,” he conceded that the loss came about purely because of a mistake that lead to their equalised just after the restart.
“I’m confident in every game we play, we are the best side in the competition in terms of playing football,” McGuinness said.
“We’re in a game though, and a game means making mistakes at crucial times. Their goal was a mistake.
“We talked about [conceding] at the break. The discussion was allowing the fact that if they were going to score, it was because we were going to make the mistake, not because they were going to create anything.
“You can only play long balls over the top to Laura [Spiranovic] for so long before she gets tired – once she was, they weren’t all that effective.”
McGuinness was left bitterly disappointed after a cruel finish to a tight contest, signalling a mental difference between the sides as the deciding factor.
“I’m disappointed. Penalties are a tough way [to lose] but it’s the same for both teams,” the Bulleen coach said.
“They were mentally tougher than us tonight when they came here and scored the penalties – we didn’t.”
Touching up on the game as a whole, McGuinness was of the belief that the contest was narrowly shaved by his team, despite a slow start.
“I thought they jumped us in the first half. The first 25 minutes we were really poor, made a little change in midfield and got back in the game.
“We just dropped one of the front three into midfield – they played three at the back.
“While I thought that would’ve been a bonus for us, they flooded the midfield so it made it difficult for us to play through them when there’s five in there.
“I thought we finished the first half stronger, and were marginally the better side in the second, in terms of playing football anyway. It just wasn’t enough on the night.”
Now faced with the prospect of a tantalising Preliminary Final against Heidelberg United, the Bulleen coach has bigged up next week’s opponents, admitting he believes they’re the best opposition in the competition.
“[Heidelberg] are a very good side. They’re probably in my view, the best side other than us, in the competition.
“They’ll be hard to beat and they’ve got their full squad. They’ve got their Americans, they’re firing, they’re physical and they’ve got a terrific goalkeeper as well.”
An exciting Grand Final decider is in the works as FC Bulleen Lions and Heidelberg United do battle on Sunday. Kick-off at Broadmeadows Valley Park is scheduled for 2:00pm.