‘A bit of a rollicking’ from new head coach Patrick Kisnorbo turned Melbourne City’s fortunes around against Brisbane Roar, according to captain Scott Jamieson.
City went into the sheds following an underwhelming first-half performance with the scores locked at 0-0 at Dolphin Stadium in their A-League 2020/21 opener against the Queenslanders.
Seven minutes after the interval, Connor Metcalfe netted the decisive goal and City held on to win 1-0 despite Adrian Luna’s 69th-minute red card.
In his first half-time team talk since taking the reins, Kisnorbo sent the beaten 2020 Grand Finalists out with stern instructions to buck up their ideas and his words resonated, revealed Jamieson.
“The first half we were poor from our standards, from last year and the pre-season, so there was a bit of a rollicking,” said Jamieson.
“I don’t think it was his biggest rollicking, he might save that for the rest of the year, but there was enough in it to really get us up and about.
“We need to be better at [that]. We can’t allow teams to have a chance like that.”
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The 39-year-old has coached City’s under-20s and women’s team before taking the first team assistant role and then being handed the opportunity to step up to replace outgoing coach Erick Mombaerts.
And Kisnorbo put his side’s slow start to the 2020/21 campaign down to opening day jitters.
“It’s the first game, I’m sure the players would have had a lot of nerves,” Kisnorbo told FOX Sports.
“We were a bit sloppy. Sometime we nearly paid for that. Credit to the players, we came out second half fighting and got the result in the end.”
Brisbane Roar captain Tom Aldred cut a disappointing figure but admits his team only have themselves to blame for not securing a result in Redcliffe.
“That’s football. You can opportunities in games like that, you’ve got to take them,” the Roar’s captain said.
“[We had] a couple of big opportunities I thought.
“That was the difference, they took their opportunities and we didn’t’ so it’s frustrating.”
https://players.brightcove.net/5519514571001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6218771299001
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