Welcome to the Luke Wilkshire era at the Wollongong Wolves.
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The former Socceroo made the perfect start to his NSW National Premier League coaching career with an impressive 2-1 victory over Manly United at Albert Butler Memorial Park on Sunday.
English-born striker Thomas James' debut goal had the Wolves 1-0 in front at break before a decisive 75th minute strike from Jordan Nikolovski helped nullify Manly defender Sam Gallagher's 35-yard thunderbolt.
It was an ominous round one performance from a revamped Wolves squad, which featured just one player from last year's round one line-up in the starting eleven.
Captain and goalkeeper Justin Pasfield was the only player to retain his spot. Despite the changes, Wollongong looked far from a side still looking to gel early in the campaign.
"I am delighted with the way we played," Wilkshire said.
"Obviously we are delighted to win. That's what it is all about, winning games.
"We played some good football. I was happy with it. We defended well as well."
The Wolves always looked the more likely of finding the back of the net throughout the first half, with James, Lachlan Scott, Takeru Okada and Harry Callahan combining well.
The first major chance fell to Scott with 24 minutes gone, but the former Western Sydney Wanderer striker failed to keep his header under the crossbar.
It mattered little 10 minutes later when Okada's bullet cross found James the back post. The ex-Canberra FC attacker took his chance from close range.
Scott went close again in the 56th minute, only to be denied by a superb acrobatic save from Dylan Mitchell.
United's equaliser came just two minutes after Okada spurned a chance to double the Wolves advantage.
After being denied a penalty shout, Gallagher fired from long range with his stunning effort leaving an outstretched Pasfield helpless.
It came against the run of play, but was quickly forgotten as Nikolovski finished off some well executed link-up play to put the winner into the bottom corner just two minutes later.
It was enough for the Wolves to start their campaign on the right note, but Wilkshire was adamant his squad still must be more clinical as the season progresses.
"I think we made it harder than we needed to," he said.
"I think we had enough opportunities to put the game out of sight earlier on and when you don't take your chances, teams tend to come back and punish you.
"They did and they got that cracking goal from 40 yards. At 1-1, the reaction from the boys to go on and win the game was fantastic."
It was a strong opening day for the Wolves, with the under 18's and 20's both chalking up first-up victories.
The under 18's prevailed in an emphatic 7-1 victory while the under 20's claimed a 2-0 win.
Wollongong play their next four NPL matches on the road.
