Grant Brebner believes Melbourne Victory is heading in the right direction after a narrow loss to Brisbane Roar on Wednesday.
With four teenagers in the starting side, Victory was edged 2-1 by Brisbane in the Hyundai A-League.
Andrew Nabbout scored a late penalty after headers from Scott McDonald and Matthew Ridenton for Brisbane.
Speaking afterwards, Victory interim head coach Brebner feels his side is making progress, while he also provided an injury update.
on the game…
“DĂ©jĂ vu in terms of the result and not getting the result we wanted, but I think probably to get back into the game, I felt we were in the game, I felt that we were in the game all night, but yes, we conceded two goals that we can analyse and know we can do better, but tonight I didn’t think we got back in the game, maybe from a scoreline perspective, but from a performance perspective all night I thought we were in the game and deserved more.”
on the youngsters…
“I don’t want to dwell on kids. I’m pleased with the way this club and the players are showing an effort and an enthusiasm and a will to drive themselves to push forward. We can talk about the kids, but Leigh Broxham, James Donachie tonight were outstanding so there’s a lot of positives. We can talk about the kids, but I’m looking at the bigger picture and again, I don’t want to go overboard because the result is the main thing, but we’re moving forward in the right direction I feel.”
on selection…
“I don’t call it experimenting. I’m playing a team that I see as the best-placed team to win the game and there’s players tonight that will keep their place in the team next Monday night because they deserve to. I know from the outside looking in it possibly looks like that, for me it’s not experimenting. I trust these players, I believe in those players and I think you can see that they’re believing in it as well. Young or old, if you’re performing you’ll play and they’re showing like they want to.”
on injuries…
“We’ve got a couple of injuries. Birkan Kirdar obviously got a sore leg in the first half and that hurt us because I felt he was playing particularly well and the way we want to play, the system, in and out of possession, he’s been doing a great job for us so Birkan has pulled up a little bit sore, I don’t know how long it will be. Adama Traore had a little niggle so we brought him off but that was precautionary.”
on Robbie Kruse…
“Robbie is back in Queensland and he had his surgery yesterday, and the report that we got is that it went well so Robbie will be out of action for a while now but he’s obviously got a rehab team up there in Queensland and when we get him back to Melbourne he’ll get the best of care and we can look forward to him joining us again cos’ there’s another player that’s going to add quality to our squad.”