Williamstown stands defiant on the back of a body blow to its FFV men’s state league 3 promotion hopes.
Blues coach Slobode Stojcevski is confident his side will once again reignite its push for a top-two finish after they were knocked down a peg following a costly 3-1 loss to Westvale at McKechnie Reserve on Saturday.
It leaves the Blues in fourth spot, four points behind second-placed Westvale with six games to go.
There is undoubtedly a mountain to climb now for the Blues to achieve promotion, but one thing Stojcevski will not question is the never-say-die attitude of his players.
“We’re not out of it,” Stojcevski told Star Weekly.
“We’ve got a team that believes in itself.
“At the start of the season we were thinking how we were going to get a competitive team together with so many players leaving to other clubs from last year’s squad, but we’ve found a really good mix of players who have faith in themselves.
“It’s just a matter of getting out on the training track, getting that bit of confidence going and bouncing back.
“It’s all about the next game.”
The second 45 minutes of Williamstown’s loss to Westvale might go down as the turning point in their season.
Despite scores being tied 1-1 at half-time, the Blues felt they had the better chances in the first half and were in control of the game.
The concession of two second half penalties – the first of which Stojcevski felt was harsh and the second he agreed with – consigned Williamstown to a gut-wrenching defeat.
“I didn’t think the first one was a penalty because it was a shoulder to shoulder challenge between my centre-back and their guy who went down, but the second one was a clear penalty, so no complaints there,” he said.
“I don’t want to blame the referee for our failure to win that game because we missed some easy chances and paid the price late on for missing those chances. If we had’ve done the job further up the field, we could’ve prevented that.”
Alex Dimitrijevic was on target again for Williamstown.
In a reformed role as a striker, the Blues captain has scored 12 goals to lead the golden boot by four over Robert Chelchowski (eight) of the Western Eagles.
“Traditionally he’s played a holding midfield role, but I see him as much more of an attacking threat than a holding player,” Stojcevski said.
“Leaving him loose further up the field, I think he’s enjoying it.
“This is his record goals haul for a season and there’s still six games to go.”
The freedom Dimitrijevic enjoys is partly due to the exceptional role of new recruit Cody Nagy in his former position.
Nagy has been a revelation since moving to the Blues.
Williamstown will host mid-table La Trobe University in a must-win game at Gray Reserve on Saturday.
