It’s 5pm on a Sunday and Nino Ragusa is a man under immense pressure.
Werribee City have just lost 3-1 to Ballarat at home, with the regional side picking up a vital three points in the race to avoid relegation, condemning the home side to its sixth straight defeat.
The Bees are outside the relegation zone, just. The Red Devils have games in hand, and seem more likely to eventually replace their opponent in the treasured safety zone.
The natives are restless. Sounds of discontent are audible from the clubhouse. One tormented soul, a leather-clad rogue, storms past, commanding Ragusa to resign.
“Put that in your match report,” a bystander exclaims.
“Why don’t you just go ask him what he thinks,” a candid Ragusa suggests. I reassure the coach I’m only interested in his thoughts.
“As a club, we knew what we were going in with – the inexperience and the youthfulness of the team – we always knew we were going to struggle,” the Werribee mentor explains.
“People got carried away because we actually picked up points early, we were always three, four points ahead [of expectation].
“I told the club four or five weeks ago – unfortunately young teams, when they get into these periods, it’s very difficult to get out of, you really need a lot more experience than what we have.”
The game wasn’t exactly an abomination. City controlled possession and territory for the first half hour. Tolli, Batsis and Kaya looked threatening, albeit without troubling the scorers. There was cohesion and fluent ball movement from a side not exactly renowned for free-flowing play.
Then, in the 34th minute, a speculative cross floated in the box from Ballarat’s left. Werribee’s back four failed to clear the ball properly. It bounced to Paul Harvey on the right post. The clinical striker made no mistake. The home side trudged back to the centre spot with the ball, deflated.
“At the end of the day, I thought we played okay, but 30, 35 minutes in you make one silly error, not clear the ball out properly and you’re chasing the game,” Ragusa explains.
“We should not be 1-0 down at half-time. That error should not be made. That ball should be cleared, it should be out of there, it’s still 0-0 and you don’t have to panic.”
After the break, a turnover in midfield led the ball to Harvey’s feet, who added his second goal. A gritty Werribee continued to press, and earned a scrappy goal with less than 10 minutes to play, before Deng Aguek’s wonder strike sealed victory for the visitors.
“We keep making the same little defensive mistakes that cost us games. The problem is we’re still leaking goals at critical moments – bad errors, and bang.
“Then you have a player lobbing my keeper from 50 metres out.
“They [the players] still showed effort, they still showed endeavour, but you can’t look at it as if things aren’t going your way. We’re not doing the right things to make them go away.”
Despite the result, the coach remains resilient.
“There’s still seven games to go, still 21 points to play for. The race down the bottom, there’s still three or four team around us.
“You’ve always got faith in any 11 you put on the park.”
***
It’s 10pm on a Tuesday, a mere 53 hours after the Ballarat game, and Nino Ragusa is a relieved man.
His team has just upset sixth placed Pascoe Vale 2-0 away. It was a different Werribee. There was less attacking intent. Less focus on football, more focus on defensively stifling the opponent. It worked.
Two set piece goals in the second half were enough to clinch victory. The one blight on the heated contest was Ersin Kaya’s sending off just a minute before the final whistle. Kaya was instrumental in the win, contributing a goal and an assist.
There’s no contingent of away fans to celebrate, just a dressing room full of elated players, and a solitary figure outside puffing on a cigarette, pondering, reluctant to talk.
“Very solid performance from us tonight, excellent,” Ragusa says.
“Other than the sending off at the end, our discipline was excellent, our character was excellent, and we deserved to win.”
He attributes a determined attitude unseen in previous contests as a catalyst for the victory.
“You’ve just got to keep going. Forget about everything else. When a 90 minute game starts, you start at 0-0, what are you depressed about?”
“You’ve just got to get on with the game. And they did. They approached it very positively.”
So, with six games now left and an extra three points in the bank, the outlook for Ragusa is more optimistic, right?
“Ha, that’s great – take Dandy and South, great! Then Oakleigh and Heidelberg? Thanks buddy, looking forward to it,” the suddenly discouraged coach sarcastically muses.
Where’d that dogged resilience from Sunday go?
“But hey, at least we start to get out of the rut, and look more positive.”
There it is. Kind of.
It’s like the Tuesday was a parallel universe, a complete contrast from Sunday, in all aspects of the match and post-game interview.
With a fixture against Dandenong Thunder awaiting on Sunday afternoon, it’s anybody’s guess as to which Werribee will rock up, or which Ragusa for that matter.