In the end it was a relieved John van’t Schip and Melbourne City to leave AAMI Park with a draw on Sunday.
Despite periods of territorial dominance against Newcastle Jets in front of a record non-derby home crowd, City conceded more clear-cut chances to the visitors, with only a moment of brilliance from David Villa salvaging a late draw for the hosts.
The Dutchman acknowledged that his side should have been more clinical in the front third to capitalise on their early advantage.
“In the first half we were dominating, having a lot of set pieces, creating some chances from out of the set pieces, and that’s where you have to go up front,” van’t Schip said.
“You know that at the moment it still stays nil-nil, they start believing more in a good result, we open up and our opponent always will create one or two chances.
“With their second chance, they scored, and after that we opened up, took more risks, we came back to equalise and then of course they had the very big opportunity to finish the game.
“We had with Aaron Mooy and David Villa a few opportunities to come earlier towards the equaliser, but in the end it’s a result [a win] we would’ve liked before the game.”
In similar circumstances to their contest first round contest against Sydney, City found themselves behind despite their good play – last week to a Corey Gameiro curler, this week to an Edson Montano header from a counter-attack.
While Melbourne have turned poor losses last season under the Heart name to frustrating, come-from-behind draws so far this season, van’t Schip believes the focus now has to be on starting stronger and turning draws into wins.
“It’s frustrating, if you look at the first game, the half we played good, second half more equal with Sydney, and a bit more not in control,” he said.
“This game, first half we were controlling, we were dominating, we were playing good parts but in the end phase we were not ready to give the finishing punch, and that’s something in football – you have to score goals.
“Domination is not enough for three points, it’s the goals that count and we have to be more focused on [scoring goals].
Despite the draw, van’t Schip was again pleased with superstar David Villa’s contribution to the contest, again scoring late to snatch a draw, and believed the World Cup winner would only get better in his eight remaining games with the club.
“The good thing was he [Villa] scored again and played 90 minutes and we’re very happy with that,” he said.
“David’s coming from three months of not playing really in a team, and no matter where you play, you need time and rhythm to adjust.
“He only needs a little moment – [he’s] very quick in getting released. He’s always going to be dangerous in fine places to score a goal or set up for someone else, and we get another week with him to get stronger and we’ll prepare ourselves for the derby.”
Melbourne City will now prepare themselves to face cross-town rivals Victory in a hotly anticipated derby on Saturday, albeit minus Robert Koren again, whom van’t Schip admitted to suffering a “set-back” in training last week in his recovery from an injury.