Tara Murray
Balmoral has got its FV state league 4 west season back on track after a slow start.
Promoted in the off season after winning state league 5 west last season, Balmoral had some disappointing results in the first four weeks of the season this year.
Since then it’s been undefeated in its next seven matches to sit in fifth spot at the halfway part of the season.
President Enver Malkic said they feel like their senior side is on a roll and has found its feet at this level.
“We are 10 points behind second spot,” he said. “We didn’t have the best start in the first four rounds.
“We’ve had seven games undefeated and now we get a well deserved rest.”
Malkic said they felt like they had put together a pretty strong squad but they had delivered some below par performances.
He said they added a couple more players to the squad since the season had started and they were able to turn their form around.
The side is still aiming for promotion which requires a really strong back half of the season.
“We’re playing for second spot, top spot is running away with it and are 15 points ahead of us.
“We’ve got a lot of home games and we want to make our fans proud for the rest of the season.”
Malkic said they had a few injuries so the mid-season break came at an ideal time.
There was one match in state league 4 west on the weekend, with Melton Phoenix and Moonee Ponds United playing a catch up match.
After the break, Balmoral faces the top side, Surf Coast.
“We lost 2-0 in the first round,” he said. “It’s a big test for us in front of our home crowd. Hopefully we can be the first team to take a point off them.”
Malkic said the rest of the club was flying.
“The club as a whole we’ve been really happy with how the season has gone so far,” he said.
“We’ve grown from 13 teams to 21 teams this year, with eight extra teams across the board.
“The biggest highlight for us is four female teams, we had none last year. We have a women’s side, an under-14 team and two under-8s teams. We’ve given them all free rego and uniform.
“It’s a long term investment for the club.”
