It wasn’t the 4-0 scoreline that upset Northern Storm coach Craig Caruana, it was the concentration during key moments.
The Storm were outclassed by Coastal Premier League Men’s competition favourites Coffs City United in the inaugural Anzac Cup on Sunday.
And it was some lapses in concentration in particular that cost Caruana’s men dearly.
They only trailed 1-0 at halftime and had their opportunities to draw level in the second half.
“The effort and the desire wasn’t there in defence in the second half like it was in the first half and it showed,” Caruana said.
“That’s not good enough and especially on a day like Anzac Day I didn’t think our effort was good enough.”
Caruana questioned the concentration of his players in particular after they switched off at a drop-ball scenario that saw the ball end up in the back of the net.
“We weren’t getting torn apart by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
“You can practice, you can have tactics, you can do everything but if you don’t have effort, desire and attitude it’s going to be a long 90 minutes and you’ve got to have those three things for the full 90 minutes.
“You can’t float in and out of games – it doesn’t matter who you’re playing whether it’s first place or last place, the results are going to be the same.
“When you’re playing a team like Coffs you get 90 minutes of absolutely full-on concentration and effort otherwise you’re going to get beat. It’s as simple as that.”
Lions coach Glenn Williams believed his side dominated large periods of the game, but doubted whether the final scoreline was a true reflection of the contest.
“Our defence was strong as normal and they might have had one or two shots but didn’t really put us under a lot of pressure,” he said.
“We had some chances in the first half to probably put the game away, but we didn’t strike on those and the second half we might have been a bit fitter and put four away. I don’t know whether 4-0 is the right score, but you take everything you can get.
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