Midfield Reshuffle A Mistake: Turner

Illawarra Mercury

Monday March 3, 2008

By PAUL ZALUNARDO

WOLLONGONG FC are still searching for their first win of the NSW Premier League season after a horror first half resulted in a 4-0 loss to Sydney Olympic at Belmore Sports Ground on Saturday night.

Olympic scored all their goals within 37 minutes of the start, turning the second half into a non-event.

After already being a goal down before losing captain Ben Blake to a badly corked buttock in the 20th minute, Wollongong had no answers against an Olympic side that showed why many rate it among the competition favourites.

The Wolves have one point from their opening two matches, a start that seemed unlikely considering the strong squad coach John Turner assembled during the off-season.

Turner left former Guinean international Balla Conde and midfielders Chris Price and Mitchell Long out of his starting side on Saturday and introduced a new formation that left Daniel Aliffi playing in a deeper role and Alfredo joining Steve Hayes in dual holding midfield roles.

Turner conceded his new playing system didn't work as he intended.

"I won't persevere with it. The boys seem a lot more comfortable with how we played in the first game," he said.

"I am not looking for excuses, I am looking for reasons. Maybe that was one."

Blake said the team failed to adapt to the new midfield set-up.

"We hadn't done much work on it. We only had Wednesday and Friday and I don't know if we were ready for it," he said.

"At half-time we changed and went back to the normal formation in the second half. We went a lot better then."

"I think it's just a matter of us getting a settled side together and going from there."

Turner said the team needed to raise their intensity.

"I still think we lack firepower up front," he said.

"Other teams are bullying us with their strikers. They had two big guys who put plenty of pressure on us.

"We need to get a lot more mongrel in our team, we need more venom.

"We have now gone 180 minutes and haven't scored a goal."

After ex-Bulli player Anthony Hartshorn opened the scoring in the 18th minute, Olympic hammered Wollongong into submission by scoring three times in seven minutes.

Matthew Mayora's goal was sandwiched between a pair of Shannon Cole efforts.

Prior to the heavy loss suffered by the first grade side, Wollongong's youth team were beaten 1-0 by Olympic.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

Back to News Index | Back to Home