Harry Kewell has put the rest of the Hyundai A-League on notice, revealing that new coach Jim Magilton’s arrival has sparked a ‘hunger’ within a team he insists leaves some rivals ‘afraid’.
Harry Kewell has put the rest of the Hyundai A-League on notice, revealing that new coach Jim Magilton’s arrival has sparked a ‘hunger’ within a team he insists leaves some rivals ‘afraid’.
Archie Thompson scored the game’s opening goal on Friday night against Adelaide United at AAMI Park in just the sixth minute as Victory dominated much of the opening half but after failing to fully capitalise the momentum swung after the break and the Reds hit back through Sergio van Dijk.
But while Victory failed to secure all three points in Magilton’s first game in charge, Kewell said the change within the club since he arrived has been noticeable and confidence is building.
“We’ve seen a change in the atmosphere around here, it’s a lot more positive,” Kewell said.
“The boys get on well and ever since I’ve come here I’ve had nothing but a great time.”
“The boys have made me feel really welcome and I enjoy coming into work.”
“There’s something in the team, you get this kind of feeling of hunger coming over the last week.”
“As a footballer you can smell things and I can smell something in this team that we want to do something great.”
“And I don’t care what anyone says, I know in this league people are afraid to play against us and it is a confidence thing.”
“We were lacking confidence and confidence doesn’t come straight away, you’ve got to build on it and that’s what we’re doing.”
Happy to play whatever role Magilton sees fit to employ him in as he tries to make himself as valuable as possible, Kewell was disappointed to have narrowly missed out on scoring when he did everything right and then slammed a second-half shot against the crossbar.
And earlier this season at Etihad Stadium goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic had also denied him two or three times with superb saves.
“I think it’s Eugene, I think he’s just praying, he’s doing something to stop the ball going in the back of the net,” Kewell added with a laugh.
“It’s just one of those things, the good thing is I’m in those positions to hit the shot and I’ll keep going.”
“The best thing about doing those kind of things is you can keep trying.”
Magilton was obviously disappointed not to have secured the three points but he saw enough positives in the performance to give him confidence better things will follow having not gone into the match with huge expectations just days after taking charge.
“I think we were dominant (in the) first half (and) I think had we taken our chances we probably would have won the game comfortably,” Magilton said.
“But credit to them they came back at us (and) caused us a few problems (in the) second half.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day and they’ve had four or five days with me.”
“We’ve had a very strong performance first half (and the) second half we can obviously do a little bit better but overall (I’m) really pleased with the application of the players, really pleased with our attitude (and) really pleased that we got something from the game.”
