City Head Coach Warren Joyce has lamented his side’s exit from the FFA Cup but says individual mistakes instead of his side’s style of play cost them the chance to secure their first piece of silverware for the season.
His side went down to Western Sydney 2-1 at AAMI Park on Wednesday night as a first half lapse ultimately cost City in their pursuit of the FFA Cup.
Joyce – who made it clear his side’s effort was not in question – admitted lapses throughout the match was the catalyst, both in front of goal and down back.
“Individual errors from missing the chances and individual errors. Nothing to do with team work, it was an individuals making a mistakes,” Joyce said.
“You should have been definitely two up really, maybe more. We’ve played four games against A-League sides this year and not conceded a goal and gifted two goals with a free header off a cheap corner and we gave them the ball for the second one.
“We didn’t make the most of the opportunities that we had. I thought there were more penalties in it. You couldn’t fault the effort and the willingness to drive the game. I didn’t think we lost that game by not being the better team.”
Despite the result, Joyce and his side have plenty of positives going for them this pre-season as they spend the next four weeks preparing for the blockbuster Melbourne Derby opener.
One of those positives was the performance of Lachie Wales on the night and the Englishman has continued to be impressed by the talented youngster who’s endeavour continues to see him selected in the side.
“He’s done really well since he’s come to the Club,” he said.
“He’s come in through the back door and not on a lot of money but he wants to get better, wants to improve, wants to work hard and has got ability and chance to be a footballer.
“We’ve got friendlies next week [to continue our preparations]. We have new players that have come in that need to be integrated into the squad, need to be integrated into the training so it’s back to the training ground and working towards the start of the season.”
“We’ve got a month now to knuckle down and put in the hard yards to make sure our intensity is at 100% for Round 1. We will be working every day towards that.”
Melbourne City will have a range of behind closed doors friendlies before taking on Western Sydney again in their next public fixture on Friday 12 October.
