New Sydenham Park coach Milan Batur can’t complain in the early part of the FV state league 1 north-west season.
Batur replaced Goran Lozanovski as the Reds coach, after the former coach accepted a role to return to National Premier League side Altona Magic.
The Reds sit on top the ladder after four rounds, with three wins and a draw.
Batur said it had been a good start to the season.
“It’s still fairly early days, but for me right now I can’t complain,” he said. “I’ve kept the majority of the team together.
“I’ve bought in a few younger kids and a few experienced heads as well, but we have a very similar line up to last season.”
Batur said there’s always going to be changes at this level but said after finishing second last season, they knew they didn’t have a bad squad.
“We filled some spots that we thought we needed to with some quality,” he said. “We will see how it goes”
Batur said it had been different to what he expected stepping up into the senior coaching role having been an assistant coach for the past three seasons.
In 2022, the side finished third one spot outside promotion. In 2023, they finished in second spot but midway through the season, Football Victoria decided only one team would be promoted, meaning they missed out again.
Batur said he was enjoying the challenge so far and couldn’t complain.
With the side continuing on what it’s done in the past couple of seasons, Batur said he had kept a lot of the same things in place.
“I wanted to bring a little bit of me into the role,” he said. “I have changed the whole way that we’ve played, but bought in my philosophy on how i think the way we should play
“It comes down to the players and they have done a good job, which makes it a little easier.”
The Reds were back in action on Saturday against Brimbank Stallions in round four.
They won 3-1.
“It’s a little bit of a rivalry,” Batur said before the match.
“We were a little disappointing to drop points in our last home game. We had a draw and we want to instil that we don’t want to drop points at home.”
