The Albury-Wodonga Spitfires slipped to their sixth consecutive loss in the Capital League men’s competition on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Despite showing plenty of positive signs, the 3-1 defeat to Goulburn at Albury Hockey Centre leaves them three games and goal difference outside the top-four.
Goulburn took a 1-0 lead into the break and doubled the advantage early in the second half, before Larry Simpson pulled one back for the hosts.
However, the visitors, led by former Australian Kookaburras’ star Glenn Turner, found a response to capture the three points with a 3-1 victory.
Spitfires’ co-coach Jeremy Payne was impressed with the intent from his side.
“We put it to them, it was a pretty hard-fought game,” Payne said.
“They won the league last year, so we knew it was always going to be tough.
“We pushed them and even the last 10 to 15 minutes when we were down two goals, we were still trying to push for the win, which was good to see.”
Payne admitted it can be intimidating for a young side to come up against the likes of Turner, but it didn’t seem to faze the Spitfires.
“I think when we know the tough games are ahead of us, the guys really step up and rise to the occasion,” Payne said.
“I was really impressed how the guys took it on, especially with likes of Tim Jones and Andrew Monte back in the side, it gave us confidence out there.
“Andrew had a great game and gave us a lot of drive from the back.
“Timmy Jones was solid all day, he didn’t let anyone push him off the ball, he held his own really well.
“Larry Simpson scored off a nice set up play from our strikers.
“It went from Tom Browne to Josh Verity to Larry who deflected it over the top of the keeper.”
Despite not winning since their opening game against Tuggeranong, there’s no cause for concern.
“Tony (co-coach Tony Donnolley) and I aren’t too disheartened about the win-loss ratio at the minute,” Payne added.
“We came into this knowing it was going to be a two or three-year ordeal getting up to that level.
“As long as we’re improving and learning game by game, we’re happy with how things are running.”
Charley Wallace, Jeremy Maggs and Sam Quick are set to return for next weekend’s road trip against Wests.