Melbourne Victory head coach Grant Brebner praised his younger players after a 2-1 win over the Newcastle Jets on Saturday.
Lleyton Brooks’ 79th-minute winner lifted Victory past the Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium in the A-League.
The 20-year-old’s goal was set up by Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio and came after Dylan Ryan had cancelled out Apostolos Stamatelopoulos’ opener.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Brebner discussed the win and his younger players.
on relief…
“The word pressure has been sort of on everybody’s back for a while because we’ve been working hard to get results at this football club. I think we’ve played better in games and not won games but tonight there was a lot of youthful enthusiasm, backed up by some senior players, that saw the game out very well.”
on comeback…
“I don’t think we really played good football in the first half so we came in at half-time and genuinely knew that we had more to give. We identified areas that we could try and play through or around and I think within the first five minutes we managed to do that. We get the first goal at a really good time and we rode our luck, but certainly for Lleyton as well coming on and getting a goal it’s a good feeling for him.”
on youth…
“It doesn’t necessarily make me proud because I do believe in young players. I think they bring an energy, they sometimes switch off a little bit, they’re very good going forward, but sometimes as we saw there were instances in the last five, six minutes where they do switch off, but I’ve got to give them credit. They worked so hard tonight. Luis, he has an opportunity to score in the first half, but the work he does up front tonight for us certainly helped us winning the game.”
