FFV: Keilor Park struggles to score goals

An inability to find the back of the net has cost Keilor Park dearly in the early matches of the state league 1 soccer season.

The Parkers have scored just eight times in the first eight rounds, the lowest total in the division.

Keilor Park president Paul Portelli said it had been incredibly frustrating.

“We have had an issue with scoring goals and that’s probably the biggest problem we have at the moment,” he said.

“We just can’t put the ball into the back of the net and that’s putting a lot of pressure on our defence.

“It’s going to be a long grind this year until we can get some strikers.”

Despite the struggles to hit the scoreboard, Keilor Park has been far from disgraced this season.

The Parkers are in seventh spot on the division 1 table with 11 points.

While scoring goals has been an issue, preventing them seems to come easy.

Keilor Park has conceded just nine times, also among the lowest of any side in the division.

“It is a bit frustrating because I think realistically, and looking at the players we have got, we should be around the top four,” Portelli said.

“I don’t think we would have enough to win it but we should be higher.

“We have had some players out of form too which hasn’t helped. It is one of those frustrating things.”

Keilor Park will look to get back on the winners’ list this weekend when it takes on western suburbs rival Westgate in a Friday night fixture.

Westgate is another club which has also struggled throughout the early stages of the season and is on the bottom of the table.

“The league is so tight, it only takes a few good results and you’re right back up there,” Portelli said.

“[But] We need to get a hurry on very shortly if we are going to turn things around.”