Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka is refusing to entertain the thought of finishing the season atop the Hyundai A-League table, saying the job is far from done.
Sydney moved four points clear of second-placed Melbourne Victory on Sunday afternoon via a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Perth Glory at ME Bank Stadium.
Going into the round three points clear of Victory, the Sky Blues heard the news before kick-off that Melbourne had lost 3-2 to Newcastle. But despite this, Sydney struggled to create meaningful chances to score until deep into the Sunday evening game, and ultimately missed the chance to move six points ahead of its nearest rival.
Lavicka, though, was still pleased his under-strength side, missing the suspended Simon Colosimo and injured Alex Brosque, held on for what may prove a valuable point.
But he knows Melbourne, coming off two straight losses, will now be pushing hard to overtake his side in the last six matches.
“It was good news for us (about Melbourne),” Lavicka said. “But season is still going, it’s not over.”
“We are going step by step.”
“It was a tough game for us, especially the first half,” he added.
“The home team played very accurately. They put us under pressure, created a few good opportunities and they had a lot of set pieces.”
“But the second half we improved in our style and the last part, the last 15-30 minutes we improved our attacking part as well and created two good opportunities to score.”
“I think a draw is a good result for us. We wanted to win, but a point is better than none.”
Lavicka was especially proud of his under-manned defence, missing Colosimo and Sebastian Ryall, who stood up to the Glory’s pressure time and again.
However, it was young striker Chris Payne who almost stole the show for Sydney. Coming on with 14 minutes remaining for John Aloisi, Payne produced a searing, 70-metre run in the last few minutes that saw him burst through the Glory defence.
Unfortunately for Payne, Glory defender Scott Neville did well to track his run, crowding him out and ultimately getting a toe to the ball just as he shaped to shoot, allowing Glory stopper Tando Velaphi to make the save.
But Sydney captain Steve Corica, said a win under the circumstances would have masked the fact his side was well beaten for most of this encounter.
“They were winning everything but to our credit we hung in there and got a point,” Corica said.
“I don’t think we played that well today. Whether it was the trip or what, we’ve got to improve and play a little bit better, keep the ball a little bit better.”
“And, you know we created a couple of chances but we didn’t score, so we’ve obviously got to improve on that as well.”
