Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip was relieved to see his side finally get their first win, and hopes the confidence it brings will boost the team’s quest for a finals place.
In his first game back at AAMI Park, van ‘t Schip’s side defeated a rather abject Newcastle Jets 3-1, thanks to a brace from Mate Dugandzic and a deflected Iain Ramsay strike.
The win was the Heart’s first in 20 attempts, spanning back to their 3-1 victory over Sydney FC in round 22 of last season.
The feeling in the dressing room at the end of the game was more of relief than jubilation, and the Dutchman was pleased with how Heart responded to going a goal down.
“From a goal down I think I’m proud because in the end, after all the hard work and the games they didn’t win, today they proved that it’s a team that can win,” van ‘t Schip said.
“I think that’s the most important thing for them, for the fans, for the club.
“I told them also before the game that we had to just continue and that we have enough power in our own team to overcome something like that and they showed that very quickly – they showed character.”
Dugandzic’s return to form was a welcome sight for everyone, having struggled for most of the season so far.
van ‘t Schip was pleased with the winger’s contributions, and believed that all he needed was a little bit of self belief.
“Mate is a player that is very dangerous,” he said.
“He also needs confidence.
“I told him actually before the game you’re going to make two goals and I was actually right but I could’ve been wrong because he could’ve made four goals.
“But the most important thing was that he’s working hard, he’s getting into his quality and his quality is his speed and coming in front of the goal, and being dangerous for every opponent when he goes in behind the opponent’s defence.”
Another pleasing aspect of the game was the long awaited debut of international marquee signing Orlando Engelaar.
The giant Dutchman successfully made it through half an hour on the pitch, and show plenty of good signs.
van ‘t Schip warned against expecting too much too soon from his star midfielder, and called for everyone to give him time to settle into the thick of things.
“He’s a player that you just have to play the ball to and then he will start getting in his game,” he said.
“The players will have to get used to him as well.
“They hardly have played with him because when he came he got injured very quick and he’s only [been back a short while].
“So to get used to each other, Engelaar has to get used to the way of playing and the players have to get used to what he can bring to the team so that’s another positive point that we know from here on we can build on that as well.”
van ‘t Schip was also pleased by the performance of Harry Kewell, who’s beginning to show signs he could be a real asset for Heart.
“You can see he’s won a lot of headers – one of them was the set up for the goal, and actually two of them because the first one as well, the goal from Iain and then the one that Iain played into Mate [for] the third one,” he said.
“He was very important for us that when we couldn’t play out from the back that we had a player up front that was strong to keep the ball and also win his headers.
“Overall I think he contributed a lot to the game with being an example as a captain in working hard and trying to recover balls.”
van ‘t Schip now hopes that his side can remain grounded and take the confidence from this win as they try to improve week-on-week.
“I’m talking about improving – improving the team in the way they play, and if you do that then the results normally have to come as well,” he said.
“If the results will be good enough to reach into the finals, we don’t know and we can’t say.
“I think we have to stay with our feet on the ground and know that this is just one win and we showed that we can play.
“The confidence we have to build on, we have to build on our way of playing so there are enough things that we can look forward to, and have a lot of energy getting from this win of course to make things happen faster.”