Heidelberg United coach George Katsakis conceded that the thought of an opposition comeback was on the forefront of his mind despite his side finishing strong to beat Dandenong Thunder 5-2 on Saturday night.
Despite leading 3-0 going into the break, the Bergers saw their lead cut to a single goal after goals to Safa Faisa and Jarryd Barnes put the home side back in the contest.
“You’re always worried that they’re going to come back,” Katsakis said post-game.
“At 3-0 sometimes you think the game’s over and you can concede 2-3 goals in no time. We scored three in a short period of time.
“I said to [my team] to not drop off. Unfortunately, psychologically, we just dropped off. You have a tendency to do that when you’re 3-0 up.”
The end result perhaps flattered the victors, who scored two goals in the dying embers of the game.
Regardless, they took the three points home, and with teams never knowing what Dandenong Thunder to expect, Katsakis considered it a good three points to take home, especially on their travels.
“Absolutely, it’s a very difficult venue to come and take maximum points,” he said.
“It’s always tough to come down and beat Dandenong at Dandenong. Fortunately for us, just when it looked like things may have turned pear shaped for us, we responded to a couple of moves that we made and we capitalised on early on in those moves which gave us the full points.”
The win takes United to third place with 26 points for the season; a massive deal considering the team were playing State League One football last year.
“To come out of State League One and not recruit overly, just bringing a few people over the line; to be where we are currently is a great indication of what the clubs purpose is this year,” Heidelberg’s head coach said.
“Obviously it was to consolidate. We’re now pushing the first two or three positions and we’ll keep doing that.
“But absolutely, I think it’s been a great transformation from Division One to the new NPL and if we keep up those good efforts with the younger kids coming through, I think there’s a bit of an exciting time for the club.”
They do however sit eight points off first place but with matches against South Melbourne and Oakleigh – first and second respectively – up next for the in-form side, there is a real opportunity to stamp some real authority on the title race.
Katsakis however admits title talk is still a little bit pre-mature.
“I think it’s way too early still but all we need to do is keep up with what we’re doing at the moment,” he said.
“Our expectations were no where near this but we’ll keep working fairly hard and whilst there’s a chance there, there’s always that chance.”
Heidelberg take on an ego-bruised South Melbourne on Sunday looking to knock off a big scalp to really push their title aspirations. Kick-off at Lakeside for the twilight clash is scheduled for 5:00pm.