All Too Easy for Victory
This was as bad as it gets. As half time approached my wife, who does not like football, said “What will you write about today? They aren’t doing anything”. My wife may not like football but she was right, as all wives are. "I’ve got nothing” I replied.
With storm clouds gathering on and off the pitch this game was a compete let down. The highlight of a drab first half was Berisha charging down Reddy’s clearing kick. Mat Simon was doing well, retaining the ball better than anyone has this season, Adrian Leijer was lucky not to get a second yellow, and Richard Vernes began to look like a decent player but I don’t think Victory keeper Nathan Coe had a shot to save.
As so often this season the talking points were about Phil Moss’s selections. Simon was in the starting line-up despite not being in the original squad; Monty returned at the unlucky cost of Trifiro. Neither Jacob Poscoliero or Eddie Bosnar was sighted; Zac Cairncross the defender on the bench.
The Victory started the better and the Mariners came home the stronger towards half-time. A fine slalom-like run from Vernes got the excitement going and Hutchinson, in a rare advanced position played a nice pass to Fitzgerald which came to nothing. But this was a very hard game to watch.
The Mariners began the second half quite well, Vernes had a shot, and then Caceres, both quite tame but at least they had a go. The defence looked comfortable, the scrambling to deny Victory space was good and Zac Anderson was reading the play intelligently. One desperate clearance of the ball as Reddy and he got tangled up was first class.
Simon lasted 55 minutes before being replaced by Duke; he had done well, holding up the ball and bringing others into the play, but was clearly tiring. The Mariners were weaving patterns in midfield, as they so often do, and then it all came undone. Thompson on the break fed Berisha, who was too quick for the static Rose and Neill, and the Albanian tucked the ball past Reddy. It was all too easy.
The Mariners responded with their best move of the match: a delightful ball over the defence from Caceres to Vernes whose volley went wide. Five minutes later the game was as good as over.
The defence cleared the ball, Duke headed it down to Monty, but he doesn’t quite have the touch for these situations and Georgievski stole in, took a couple of steps forward and bear Reddy with a superb curving shot to the top corner. It was an outstanding goal; it clinched the game. The goal shy Mariners were never going to come back. Connor Pain then added to the agony converting Barbarouses’s precise cross at the far post.
Trifiro and Sim came on but it was too little, too late. In the death throes Duke acrobatically flicked at a Fitzgerald cross, then couldn’t even hit the target with a genuine opportunity and finally Fitzgerald found the top corner of the net with a strong drive, but it was the outside corner not the inside.
As the game ended Moss and Sullivan went over to thank Victory for the game; the Victory thanked them for the three points.
Victory were not good today, but it was all too easy; they didn’t even need their trade mark Victorian chip on the shoulder arrogance. It was hard to tell what effect the off-field dramas are having; the Mariners are playing without two key imports; true leadership is lacking from top to bottom.
I will give Vernes my MoM with support from Simon, Anderson and the ever willing Fitzgerald but this was an awful performance. Anthony Caceres has the skills but seems to lack the mental application to control the game. For the first time I can remember I am looking forward to a January transfer window where we may gain good players instead of losing them. If we can’t improve this side then Charlesworth may have to think about clearing space in the trophy cabinet for the wooden spoon.
