Stingrays coach Anthony Guido says he cannot describe how proud he is of his team's performance against NPL NSW powerhouse APIA Leichhardt at Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre on Sunday night.
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The Illawarra side had a number of outs from their usual starting 11, as Guido handed a first-grade debut for club youth-product Ella Giles. The Stingrays led for most of the game, only to concede late on.
A first-half goal from veteran Michelle Carney gave the Stingrays the lead going into the break and it looked like the side would be travelling back down the freeway with the three points until Melbourne City superstar Rhianna Pollicina capitalised on a lapse in concentration in the Stingrays' defence in the 92nd minute.
Guido told the Mercury that it was the story of the team's season.
"It's almost like the season that could have been. It was the same story last week against Sydney Olympic, we missed a penalty late-on to win the game, and on Sunday night to concede in injury time, against two of the top sides in the league, it makes you wonder what could have been," Guido said.
"I really feel for the girls. They are putting in a massive effort against huge adversity."
Despite being disappointed about dropping two points against APIA, Guido said he was extremely proud of how his team have managed this season, and the team still holds incredibly high standards when it comes to getting results. He joined the calls for better wet-weather facilities in Wollongong.
"We're playing against teams like APIA who have a number of A-League Women's players who get to train on their synthetic pitch (Lambert Park) three nights a week, while we don't know where we're going to train and having to have a kick on a tennis court," Guido said.
"With all this weather we haven't been able to train on our normal ground once this season, and we've only played one game at (home ground) JJ Kelly Park.
"We're up against APIA who have a budget of about $200 000, while we're lucky to be working of a budget of $50 000. We are matching these teams but not only that, we're disappointed not to beat them," he said.
"If people spent a week with us and saw what we have gone through this season, they would say why do you bother? We are so disadvantaged compared to the teams we come up against in Sydney and we still are grinding out results."
The Stingrays still have 11 games to go in the season, following a number of washouts. Their next game is away on Sunday against equal-fifth placed Blacktown Spartans.
The tenth-placed Stingrays are five points adrift from the finals positions and need a win against the Spartans to close the gap.
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