Melbourne City FC captain Steph Catley remains confident that her side will reach their fourth consecutive finals series despite suffering a disappointing 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory at Epping Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Head Coach Rado Vidosic’s side controlled proceedings but were unable to find the back of the net, before they were undone by American import Christine Nairn’s effort in the 88th minute.
Despite the disappointment of the result, Catley praised the performance of her teammates.
“To be honest I thought we looked great,” Catley reflected.
“I thought we played some brilliant football, some of our best. Obviously, we were missing the finish but we created some good chances too and really limited theirs, so I think we were by far the better team.
“In the end, we’re the losers in this situation but I think we were prepared, the game plan that we worked on all week worked really well, the way that we got forward, we just couldn’t finish,” she added.
“Football is a funny game, we played terribly last week and ended up winning convincingly and then this week we play really well and lose at the death.
“It’s one of those games.”
City’s captain is confident that her team will bounce back ahead of their crucial clash with fellow top-four rivals Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park this Friday night.
“It’s pretty hard to take but we go back to the drawing board and we keep pushing on and we’ve got three games left to make finals so that’s what we’ve got to do.
“I’m proud of the way the girls played and at this time of the year, if we keep playing like that, I don’t think there’s many more we’ll lose.”
City currently sit in fifth position, one-point behind Brisbane Roar in fourth who have a game in hand, but despite the tricky situation that lies ahead it’s something the team is used to after scraping into the finals last season before going on to win their third consecutive championship.
“I think we’ll look back and watch some of the stuff that we played today and be proud,” Catley said.
“I’m really confident the girls can get the job done next week.
“We’ve put ourselves in this situation the last few years, where it’s come down to the wire in terms of making finals, so we know what to do.
“We’ve got a lot of experienced players,” she added.
“It can be nervy at times but when it comes down to it, it’s just football, and we’ve got to do the best we can and hopefully we can get results.”
City return to AAMI Park this Friday 11 January when they host Brisbane Roar in what is set to be an important double-header, kick-off 5:20pm. Get your tickets here.
