Inaugural Player of the Year Clint Bolton is confident Melbourne Heart FC can reach the finals during its second season in the Hyundai A-League.
Inaugural Player of the Year Clint Bolton is confident Melbourne Heart FC can reach the finals during its second season in the Hyundai A-League.
Heart bowed out of the race to reach the finals during the penultimate round of last season, despite ending the season in a flurry, falling only once in the final nine games of the campaign.
However, Bolton revealed that to simply reach the finals next season won-t suffice, saying the side would like to do so while remaining loyal to the Heart attacking philosophy.
“To make the finals, I think it doesn-t matter how you make it, as long as you do initially, but we would like to reach the finals playing good football, the sort of football van ‘t Schip wants us to play,” Bolton said.
“We saw small steps towards that in the first season, but ultimately do it more consistently is our goal.”
And it is this consistency which Bolton feels will be central to Heart-s sophomore season in the Hyundai A-League season, revealing his faith in the playing squad.
“You try to implement a style of football with a new team that has come together, it-s not easy. We saw glimpses of it through the season, but to do it more consistently is going to take time,” he said.
“Hopefully we get a good pre-season under our belt, we get a bit fitter, and if we can do it more consistently, we-ll reach finals and do some damage once we get there.”