Tara Murray
The Altona Magic showed some resistance to come away with its first draw of the National Premier League season.
It’s been a tough start to the season for the Magic, with just one from its first six matches.
On Saturday night, the Magic faced the Port Melbourne Sharks.
The Magic found itself trailing early, before being able to level the scores. While it had an extra man for part of the second half, the Magic was unable to capitalise, having to settle for a 1-1 draw.
Magic coach Goran Lozanovski said it was an interesting game.
“They missed a penalty which I thought was a bit soft,” he said. “We had moments and they also had some moments
“It was an end-to-end game and a bit disappointing that we were a man up and we couldn’t hold a a clean goal sheet.
“To respond and take a point was good, but we felt like we shouldn’t have lost the game.”
Lozanovski said they were able to show a bit more resilience in this game which had been pleasing. He’s hoping to see a bit more of that in the next few weeks.
“There were some good signs,” he said. “It’s our first draw of the year we weren’t finding a way early in the season.”
Lozanovski said they know there’s still a lot of work to be done to get themselves back in touch with the top six sides.
As well as a new coach, the Magic has a very different line up from last season.
“Personally, I believe its belief,” Lozanovski said is the key for taking the next step.
“No matter who it is we have to have that belief.
“We’ve had some tough games, but we believe we can get something out of every game.
“We’ve getting to know each other a lot better and there’s a lot of work hard of us. We’re still tweaking our best 11.”
The Magic’s next match is on April 6 against Avondale.
Before then, the Magic face the Sebastopol Vikings in their first match of the knock out Australia Cup on Thursday night.
Lozanovski said they were hoping for a positive result in that match up.
“It gives u the opportunity to play some of our young guys and guys who haven’t had many minutes.
“We’ll look to get 90 minutes into them and hopefully get a positive result.
“We should be good enough for the quality to shine through.”
In the Victorian Premier League 2 competition, Altona City beat the Goulburn Valley Suns, 1-0.
