Springvale White Eagles coach Zlatko Mihajlovic was not pleased with the 0-0 draw against Sunshine George Cross on Saturday, but saw enough positives from the game to take to Avondale Heights next week.
The home side were in control for much of the contest against the league’s second placed side going into the weekend, but were unable to make the most of the clear goalscoring opportunities they created.
Mihajlovic was blunt about his assessment of the match, but did see his side’s edge in attack as a positive to come out of the game.
“We’re not happy with a point,” Mihajlovic said.
“It’s the first time we’ve been held where we couldn’t score. If we’ve won or got a result because we’ve been scoring three or four – but that’s football. I don’t think we deserved anything more than three points today.
“It’s just one of those games. Very disappointing today, not on the players but just on the result. I don’t think someone picks up the paper [and sees] 0-0 thinking this is a massive result for Georgies.
“But credit to us, when you’re creating that amount of chances that mean’s it’s positive because you’re playing direct and you’re dominating the game.
“We were just unlucky we couldn’t take our chances and for us to have been that dominant against a team that’s sitting third, that’s the positive.”
One of the culprits for not taking their chance in the first half was Keletso Mthembu, and Mihajlovic explained his decision to replace the speedy winger at half time.
“Kele (Mthembu) had his chance, he could’ve scored two and I said to him clearly that’s the difference between us winning games [and not],” he said.
“If you take your one or two chances, we win games. If you don’t then someone else has to come on.”
Springvale also went into the game on the back of a 6-0 Dockerty Cup loss to Hume City, and Mihajlovic admitted that the fixture had prevented them preparing for the Georgies.
“The fact that we had a midweek cup game didn’t help us because we didn’t train all week, so we couldn’t prepare because and Wednesday night games kill us, so I’m glad we’re not in the cup anymore,” he said.
Next up for the White Eagles is a trip to Avondale Heights to face the league leaders, but it’s not a trip that particularly excites the coach.
“I heard that we’re going to play on a cow paddock next week so that’s not going to help us, it’s going to help Avondale the way they probably play on that ground,” he said.
“But we’ve got to just not worry about Avondale but worry about ourselves because we’ve got nothing to lose.
“We’re showing slowly with the young team we’ve got, that we’re going to be a force for a lot of teams.