Port Melbourne’s inconsistent start to the season has given rise to mounting frustration over the struggle to gather any semblance of real momentum seven weeks into the season.
The inner suburbs side, in its second successive season playing in the Victorian top flight, has struck up a tally of two draws, three losses, and one solitary win. Consequently, the Sharks have lost pace and, after facing another 4-0 home defeat to Heidelberg United, are languishing in twelfth place on a meagre five points.
Eric Vassiliadis flagged that lady luck has hardly granted him plentiful blessings, but conceded that Port Melbourne have fallen short of the club’s typically ambitious expectations so far.
“It’s just not good enough. We could have conceded even more! I can see the luck of the draw isn’t coming our way with an own goal and a deflection, but generally speaking, Heidelberg were the deserved winners. Fair [result],” Vassiliadis said.
A major stumbling block for Port Melbourne has been a deflating string of five successive winless games at home, squandering an early season opportunity to entrench JL Murphy Reserve as an NPL fortress.
“You want to be winning home games. We’re entertaining the away fans. But we can’t seem to entertain our home fans,” the Sharks coach said.
“All we can worry about is methodically analysing what the issues are at home. We know what they are – but at the moment we are not good enough to address them, and not good enough to counter them. It’s costing us. That’s life.”
The 2001 VPL championship winner has consistently articulated a narrative around weighing up the pressure for short-term results and meticulously working to develop the club’s youth ranks and footballing philosophy.
It’s a balancing act that has been increasingly challenging to manage, particularly with mediocre results at home escalating the urgency of rebooting the team’s short-term form.
However, Vassiliadis insists that these moments of adversity illustrate the crux of the NPL’s drive to raise standards and expectations for young players featuring in the highest level of Victorian football.
“At the moment, the balance is distorted. The balance is difficult when you have three leaders out of your team. It’s hurting us, it’s costing us, but it’s not an excuse,” he said.
“The balance is distorted but we’ve just got to find solutions. It’s not good enough. We’ve got to reload.”
“But this is what the NPL is about – young boys are getting an opportunity. Look at the team out there. It is a very young team. And it’s like that across the board.”
Port Melbourne’s next challenge is the unenviable task of travelling to lock horns with the reigning champions Northcote City on Sunday, 3:00pm at John Cain Memorial Reserve.
With Goran Lozanovski’s troops riding a resurgent wave of three wins on the trot, it is at once an intimidating test and an opportune time for Eric Vassiliadis’ side to claw their way back into form.