Sandringham SC coach Shaun Parton says he’s expecting plenty of selection headaches throughout the 2014 Sportsmart Women’s Premier League season, praising the depth in his squad, something which has been limited in recent seasons.
“It’s good that we’ve got some depth this year,” Parton said off the back of his sides round one triumph over the FFV U17′ Girls.
“We’ve never had this before in the past, real depth – We’ve had lots of good talented youngsters on the bench but now we’ve got some real depth.
“Pain in the backside for the coach who’s going to have some serious headaches making team selection but you rather that than have to play people that aren’t up to it and it’s good that we’ve got some depth at the moment, we are a bit fortunate, touch wood it stays that way the whole year.”
Sandringham opened up their 2014 campaign with a convincing 6-1 victory of the states NTC side at Kingston Heath on Monday night.
The game was however cut prematurely short as the venues lights turned off, shrouding the pitch in darkness with 14 minuets to spare.
“I think there was only 14 minutes left in the game so their coach [myself] and the referee were happy with the result to stand,” he said.
Parton was pleased to have his side firing in round one with an array of goal scorers, particularly the form of last years Grand Final hero Nicola Prins who netted a brace.
“She could have one more [but] I think it was called offside.
“We are fortunate at the moment that we’ve got people who can score goals in this team and a lot of them did tonight so that was a bonus and it’s nice when people score goals and you win 6-1 in your first game, got to be happy with that.”
The coach particularly highlighted the performance of debutant Emma Robers, with the 15 year old piecing together an impressive performance, filling the big shoes left by her predecessor Emma Gunn.
“The girl who replaced [Gunn], Emma Robers, she’s only 15 years old.”
“[Robers] who played left back tonight, it’s her first game of senior Woman’s Premier League, hasn’t played a game before – jumped straight passed the reserves into our seniors and did as well as Emma Gunn does so she deserves a bit of credit for her first game.
“Not a lot of people know that but it’s a fact and her sister who’s 13 was probably the best player in the reserves so the Robers family have a little bit of talent, lucky for us.”
Turning his attention towards tonights mid-week cup tie against North Geelong and round two clash against Bundoora on Saturday, Parton will be expecting his squads depth to play a vital role over the next week.
Keeping his lips sealed, Parton was reluctant to reveal any omission for this week’s fixtures but confirmed there will be changes both today and Saturday.
“We won’t have a full strength team Saturday, I think we’ve got a couple people missing. Not going to tell you who but there’s a couple people missing.”