THERE are wins that look good on the ladder and there are wins that tell you something about your group.
Tuesday night’s 2-1 victory over Brisbane Roar Youth was one of those games that told me a lot about our players.
It wasn’t our best football.
In fact, for large periods of the first half I thought both sides looked a little short of confidence and were feeling each other out.
It was a very even contest and neither team was able to take control.
When Brisbane scored first, I was disappointed with how we defended the situation.
At the time I thought it was a foul throw.
From where I was standing, it looked like the player had gone to take the throw, had kind of half released the ball and half dropped it.
But regardless, we still had to defend the situation much better than we did.
Ironically, conceding the goal almost helped us and seemed to spark something in us.
There was no panic. There were no dropped heads.
Instead, the players rolled their sleeves up and started playing more like the team we know we can be.
The resilience and character shown by the group was outstanding.
With Fernando Nash forced off through injury, we pushed Lucas Martins further forward and the change paid dividends.
Lucas’ biggest strengths are his speed and his ability to run behind defenders, and he made the most of the opportunity.
His penalty brought us back into the game and his winner from a tight angle was a fantastic finish.
I was also pleased to see Harry Woodruff get more senior minutes and continue his development.
What stood out most for me, though, were the senior players.
Joe Duckworth, Jack Hingert and Ryo Emoto were excellent.
Ryo, in particular, has had a tough week mentally, but he showed tremendous character and leadership when the team needed it most.
Those experienced players helped settle the group and drove the standards when the pressure was on.
The result gives us three wins in a row, but we’re not getting carried away.
We’ve spoken as a group about the importance of this period of the season.
Three games in eight days can shape your year, and we’ve got another big challenge coming up against Gold Coast United at the weekend before turning our attention to Eastern Suburbs.
The pleasing thing is that we’re beginning to see our identity return.
For a while now we’ve been working hard to get back to playing the way we want to play — aggressive, energetic football without creating problems for ourselves.
We’re not there yet, but we’re making progress.
Good teams find ways to win even when they’re not at their best.
On Tuesday night, I thought we did exactly that.
