Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou says the record derby crowd in attendance on Friday night will inspire him even further to achieve his goals with the club.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou says the record derby crowd in attendance on Friday night will inspire him even further to achieve his goals with the club.
A crowd of 42,032 packed into Etihad Stadium on Friday night as Victory lost the Hyundai A-League season opener 2-1 to Melbourne Heart.
Speaking after the loss, a visibly disappointed Postecoglou hailed the huge crowd.
“The only positive about tonight was that 42,000 people came down to watch a football game. I think that’s fantastic,” he told reporters.
“There’ll be plenty of European grounds that don’t have that sort of crowd this weekend.
“That inspires me to be honest. That we can get that many people to an A-League fixture and, certainly, it gives me motivation to make sure we get it right here. That’s the only positive.
“From a team perspective, no point pointing at the players, that’s my responsibility.
“I reckon I’ve done something wrong in that build-up for us to perform like that and that’s for me to give myself a whack around the head and make sure I don’t do that again.”
David Williams and Dylan Macallister netted goals for Heart either side of Marco Rojas’ first goal for the club.
Attacking duo Marcos Flores and Gui Finkler looked dangerous when Victory managed to get through the Heart press and while Postecoglou said his team looked menacing at times, the coach was unhappy they were unable to produce it more often.
“We looked threatening when we got through, but we just didn’t do it often enough,” he said.
“I don’t think we did it with the right purpose.
“Whatever small fragments of our game plan that did come together looked OK, but I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do that more often.”
Postecoglou said Victory would continue doing their best to get better ahead of their clash against Brisbane Roar.
“(We’re going to) keep working hard and try and analyse the areas we need to improve in and understand that the responsibility we all share as representatives of this football club,” he said.
“There’s a heavy burden that goes along with being part of this club. I’m not shying away from it, the players won’t and none of us will.
“We’ve got to understand that we’ve got a responsibility every week to perform to a certain level and we didn’t today.”
Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas, who denied Heart on several occasions in their search of an equaliser, was also left upset after the defeat.
“I was happy to get the nod to start the season but it’s very disappointing like Ange said for so many people to come out and support us and to give the performance we did,” he said.
