Nikita Varelas commends team’s fight and character
Box Hill United exhibited brilliant, fast attacking effectiveness in their 3-3 draw to Essendon Royals on Friday night and there were a lot of positives to take out of the impressive performance.
Pythagoras, coming off two testing opening fixtures, met another strong outfit with plenty of experience on Wembley Park.
Nikita Varelas, a constant danger man all night, was proud with the character shown by the team to secure their second point of the season and highlighted the progress the team has made early on in the season.
“There are a lot of emotions. I’m proud of the boys for sticking together and putting through a game with a lot of good passages of play,” Varelas commented.
“There were a lot of moments where we showed character however just a few lapses in concentration to let us concede three goals especially one in the 89th minute. That obviously hurts but I’m proud of the effort we put out there.
“We’ve just got to keep working and improving every week and doing our best to get better, that’s all you can do really. Overall a good effort, but disappointed not to get the three points.”
The attacking prowess and free flowing football allowed Box Hill United to score three goals on top of the many missed opportunities that presented their way.
Varelas mentioned the important message from Coach Tony Merakis to the forwards going into the clash with the Royals.
“We wanted to play with bravery, show what skills we did have and play with confidence,” he said.
“Forwards were not afraid to express themselves going forward, taking on that player, whipping in that cross, take a touch and hit it, I think all that stuff was great.
“Tony said that when we did go into the final third it was a lot more effective because of that extra confidence.
“Our strengths are keeping the ball, rotating it left to right, picking the right moment to attack and when we do, we’re growing to be quite a dangerous team going forward.
“Obviously we could always improve our finishing, but three goals shows us that going forward we did a great job.”
It is a quick turnaround for Box Hill United with an important Dockerty Cup Round 4 fixture against Caroline Springs George Cross at Wembley Park on Wednesday night.
Varelas elaborated on how the squad will build confidently off this admirable performance vs the Royals, to hopefully progress into the next round of the cup.
“It just gives us added confidence going into that match. Last week against North Sunshine it was 1-1, was a tough game but we stuck in there,” he said.
“This time we were up and unfortunately conceded two to get that draw but we’re not only competing but now putting ourselves in a position to win games.
“It’s a new team so with added polish and extra practice we are going to keep winning games.
“The cup is a great opportunity to play more, play together, get the whole squad involved and hopefully progress as far as we can.”
Box Hill United are slowly creeping towards their first win of the season and have another chance to secure one on Wednesday night against VPL1 opponents Caroline Springs George Cross in the Dockerty Cup.
Written by Theo Athans
Image credit: Passion Creations
