Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip believes his side could have quite easily emerged with victory during Friday night’s match with Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip believes his side could have quite easily emerged with victory during Friday night-s match with Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.
A second half strike from defender Curtis Good earned Heart a share of the points, cancelling out an effort from Socceroo Mitch Nichols on the hour mark.
But with Heart creating the lions share of chance during the closing stages of the match, producing the type of football which saw van ‘t Schip-s side emerge as genuine title contenders at the turn of the year, the Dutchman says his side were capable of snaring all three points.
“I think if you take (the penalty save) away, it was a very deserved draw with maybe even more in it for us looking at the second half and the chances we had,” he said.
“We’re very happy with the way we performed and we’ll take it with us into the next game coming up.”
In a proverbial match of two halves, Heart received arguably its first introduction to the intensity of finals football, facing a Roar side in the ascendancy.
However, employing a high press that stymied the home side-s ability to dictate terms in the middle of the park, Heart proved itself equal to Roar in a match of substantial quality which saw tacticians van ‘t Schip and Ange Postecoglou pits wits.
“I think it was an intensive game, both sides creating chances, a very open game,” he said.
“We started a bit low and had some problems managing to close it down at times, but I think after the goal we started getting more into the way we wanted to do it.”
