I am never really sure how to feel after a draw. At 11pm last night the player in me was completely despondent after being 3-1 up and not being able to go on with it. In the light of day though the more philosophical coaching side has emerged and there are lots of positives. We remain unbeaten after two matches which is not bad going for a newly promoted side.

We have 4 points from a possible 6 and managed to hold last season grand final winners. We showed again that when we get the ball moving and link up we are quite capable of causing problems and I thought all 3 of our goals were fantastic. And if nothing else we are top of the table, at least until about 7pm.

As for the match itself it was an interesting affair. I was incredibly disappointed with our first 20 minutes or so. Wolves are a very direct and attacking team and commit numbers forward at pace. We got put on the back foot form the off and were not brave or confident enough to get the ball down and take a risk or two to keep it. Wolves deservedly took the league and funnily enough it settled us down. The next 15 minutes saw us start to get more of the ball and make better decisions which allowed us to keep it. And then we took over. Rich, Arch, Greg, Jack, JJ and Os are capable of all sorts when they start to play and move off each other in a 10 or 15 burst they demonstrated that in devastating fashion. First Os, then JJ and finally Arch all found the net after sweeping moves and the worst thing happened to us was the half time break.

At the break we spoke about the fact that Wolves would come at us with everything and we had to be disciplined and composed. If we could hold our nerve for the first 15 minutes we were confident that we would continue to cause problems going the other way. Unfortunately that went out the window 15 seconds in when Cassidy came and punched and left an empty net. Mike has been a stand out for us since joining the club last year and last night again made some wonderful saves that kept us in it, but there is no doubt that that one hurt us, and it showed. We just could not get off the back foot after that and when Wolves equalised with plenty of time remaining the writing was on the wall.

But no one can question the spirit of our lads and we fought to the last and ground out will no doubt prove to be a good result. Wolves will be amongst the contenders come the end of the season anyone taking points from them will have earned them. I have a lot of respect for Wolves coach Sam Saif, he is great for the game and I enjoy talking with him, but I couldn’t help but raise a smile listening to the post match interviews this morning. Of my favourites were the references to us having 4 shots and no corners (I wont question the accuracy of these stats but I think there were a few more than 4). All I can say is that you tend not to get corners if your shots actually go in and at 75% goal to shot ratio wolves are lucky we didn’t get a few more shots on or it could have been a hiding ;-)

All fun aside though it has been a good start for the lads and with a smallish squad we know that every point is golden. All the focus now shifts to South’s next Saturday evening and whatever happens you can be assured that the players and staff will be giving another committed effort for the club.

Joe Morris