Tara Murray
North Sunshine Eagles started the Victorian Premier League 2 season in red hot fashion, in what they’re hoping is a good sign to come.
After finishing second last season, the Eagles have kept most of their squad together as they look to build on that result.
Coach Ben Isai said the guys worked hard for the 5-0 win against Doveton.
“I’m really proud of the boys in those conditions,” he said. “It was tough.
“We started so well and led 2-0 in nine minutes and were about to control the game. It gave us the points in the end.
“The players got through in the end, but you could see the exhaustion on their faces.”
Isai said it had been a strong pre-season, even though it was a little shorter than usual with the season being brought forward a week.
He said they had been able to get through everything they had wanted to in that period.
Helping make that easier was being able to keep a similar playing group.
“We retained pretty much most of the players,” he said. “We didn’t need to overhaul the squad, as it was quite strong.
“The players we added in the mid-year window, we wanted to keep them.”
The Eagles new signings include Dion Muhtari, who joins the club from Melbourne Victory’s development squad, goalkeeper Joshua Mikac who crosses from the Melbourne Knights and Diellon Memishi and Farah Farah, who return to the club from stints at Werribee City and Western Suburbs respectively.
Having been so close to promotion last season and with two teams set to be promoted this season, Isai said they just need to keep building on what they’ve done and the results will take care of themselves.
“We had a good start last season but had a three or four week bad patch that cost us in the end,” he said.
“We don’t want to have those bad patches and when we don’t get favourable results, we can’t take that into the next week.
“We want to make sure we have a more consistent year and use the round one win as a bit of momentum.”
The Eagles are in action on Saturday night in round two against Box Hill United..
Meanwhile in the National Premier League competition, Green Gully is on the road against the Oakleigh Cannons, Melbourne Knights face Moreland City and St Albans Saints face Hume City.
