In his own words, David Carney's first game in charge of the Wollongong Wolves was bitter-sweet.
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The Wolves coach though couldn't fault his team's performance despite the home-side throwing away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with APIA Leichhardt in their opening round NSW NPL fixture.
Carney was in fact buoyed by the performance against one of the competition favourites and expects the Wolves to take a lot of confidence into their clash against the Sutherland Sharks at Seymour Shaw Oval on Saturday night.
"There's a lot of positives to take away from the APIA game and we have a lot of confidence going into tomorrow's game against Sutherland," he said.
"It's going to be another tough game but if we continue playing the way we are, we give ourselves a good chance of victory."
Sutherland were beaten 3-0 in their opening game against Sydney Olympic but a lot of good judges, including Carney himself, felt the score did not adequately reflect the game, with the Sharks the better team for most of the match.
"I watched the game against Olympic, Sutherland didn't serve that," Carney said.
"I don't really think the scoreline really reflected the game. I thought Sutherland in large parts of the game were better than Olympic.
"We need to be at our best, it's definitely not going to be an easy game. I told my players we have to be fully up for the game or we will get beat."
The Wolves' impressive pre-season, which included victories over Roackdale, Sutherland and the Mariners, as well as a solid performance against APIA in the season opener, has Carney confident Wollongong can enjoy a very good season.
The coach though is banking on experienced trio Lachlan Scott, centre-midfielder Chris McStay and centre-back Harrison Buesnel leading his team to victory. He also is hoping Walter Scott continues his rampaging form against APIA, which saw the left-back named in the NPL Team of the Week.
"I think if we can keep everyone fit I think we can beat anyone in the league. It's just keeping that consistency and togetherness throughout the season."
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