By Tara Murray
Werribee City hasn’t had the luck it has needed as its new squad tries to come together in the Victorian Premier League 2 competition.
Having dropped a division in the off season, the Bees have been faced with many new challenges facing it this season.
Coach Craig Moore said it hadn’t been easy in the early parts of the season.
“We’ve been struggling with a few injuries,” he said. “Our captain got a tough challenge on Saturday night and had half a dozen stitches in his leg and is out for two to three weeks.
“Stress fractures, ankle ligaments; it has been tough to get a full squad out there.
“But it opens up opportunities for the kids to come up from the under-23s. It’s good for them and the development for some of those players.”
Moore said they would love some consistency within their side instead of having to make three or four changes each week.
He said they had shown some really good signs but it was able to put it all together.
“We have the best defensive record in the league,” he said before the weekend’s match. “We’ve got some good defensive match ups. We have to go out and score some goals.”
The Bees were able to gain some confidence in their opening round of the Australia Cup with a 7-0 win.
Moore said while it was a match they expected to win, it was still a good test for them.
He said they gave some of their under-23s and bench players a go in that game.
“We gave them a chance to see what that level looks like and what it felt like,” he said.
“One guy got a hat-trick, another got two goals. The good thing about that game was giving more of the younger players first team football and rest some of the other players.
“They got to experience senior football and the pace is quicker than what they are used to. They got to see who we want to play as a club right across the board.”
Moore said the win would build some belief in a side that hadn’t had many wins in the past few years.
He said they need to get that into not only the playing group, but also in the club and the supporters.
“We want them to take that confidence and freedom to express themselves,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll lead to some positive results and the boys understand how we want to play on the pitch.”
On Friday night, the Bees faced ladder leaders Eltham Redbacks.
The Redbacks led 1-0 at half time before going on to win 3-1 as the Bees ended the game with 10 men.
Kojo Brown was the goal scorer for the Bees.
After seven rounds the Bees sit in 13th spot.
Meanwhile, the FV state league season got underway on the weekend.
In state league 3 north-west, Hoppers Crossing beat the Sebastopol Vikings, 2-0.
In state league 4 west, West Point lost to Balmoral, while Point Cook shared the points with Keilor Wolves and in state league 5 west, Tarneit United lost to Maidstone United, 8-1.
