Jeff Hopkins’ Melbourne Victory Women claimed all three points away from home against the Perth Glory on Sunday evening. This is what Hopkins had to say after his side’s 3-0 win.
On the result & improving from last week…
“First of all, really happy. I think a few of the things we talked about before the game, improvements from last week – in terms of being able to keep the ball, in terms of playing with a bit more intensity with and without the ball.”
“We came in at half-time reasonably comfortable, although there were a few scary moments where we did give the ball away.”
“The sending off changed the game completely, but I still felt reasonably comfortable at that time… we scored (again) straight away which settled us right down.”
On the developing combinations…
“I thought we were passing the ball really well, we were finding spare players – which is what we worked on, basically, right through the week – finding that central midfield player, trying to find KK (Elise Kellond-Knight), Chids (Alex Chidiac), or young Alana Murphy.”
On Melina Ayres’ performance and growth…
“She scored a great goal last week, she trained so well this week around the goal and in the 18 yard box.”
“We did say before the game, that when we get forward, we really have to get the ball in and around her area from wide areas, get the ball into the box and find Melina.”
“You can see she’s back to the form she was in the year before last, and the last three games of last year when she came back last year from injury.”
On building for the entire season…
“In general (the win against Perth) it was a step forward from last week, and last week was a step forward from the week before.”
“All we are trying to do at the moment is tidy a few things up each week, and take a step forward – and that’s definitely what we’ve done this week here.”
“We understand that we are not where we want to finish, we still have a lot of improvement in our play, in the way that we defend, in our intensity, in the way that we move the ball.”
“I know that we are going to get better and better. I’m pretty comfortable with where we are at the moment, it’s really exciting for me that we have a lot of improvement left in us.”
