Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van’t Schip believes that his side’s record 5-0 demolition of Wellington Phoenix in Round 19 of the Hyundai A-League was the “consequence” of recent hard work
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van-t Schip believes that his side’s record 5-0 demolition of Wellington Phoenix in Round 19 of the Hyundai A-League was the “consequence” of recent hard work.
“Everything went our way and in the end it was easy, but I think it is a consequence of the last few weeks that we are playing better and better and getting results,” van’t Schip said.
“You have to have a little bit of luck with shooting and scoring and in the first half we really made use of the space in behind them, on the break we were very dangerous.”
Melbourne Heart struck early goals through returning marquee Orlando Engelaar, who fired in a thunderbolt on his left boot in the ninth minute, before David Williams scored a sublime chip from Engelaar’s pass in the 19th minute.
Williams went on to record Melbourne Heart FC’s first-ever hat-trick, while a powerful Robbie Wielaert strike rounded out the 5-0 result.
Van’t Schip said he was pleased the team continued its dominant form in the second period of the match.
“In the second half with the advantage of a few more goals we started to play a bit more possession so it was a good game for everything – for the confidence and for the first away win,” van’t Schip said.
With captain Harry Kewell injured, Patrick Gerhardt was promoted as a defensive midfielder and his efforts to thwart Phoenix danger man Carlos Hernandez worked a treat.
“That-s something that we talked about during the week,” van-t Schip said.
“He [Hernandez] obviously scores and sets goals up so we tried to make sure that he couldn-t get too much in the play and Patrick Gerhardt did a good job.”
Engelaar was equally impressive in midfield.
“Orlando still has to get more game time; because of the score we could even let him play 90 minutes today so that was a big advantage for him as well to play 90 minutes,” van’t Schip said.
“He-s still not in his best form – he has to get stronger – but you can see he is an experience player, he can keep the ball well and is a good passer and made of course a very good goal.
“Next week we have Brisbane so that is going to be a massive game; they are the best team in the league and play very good football so [it-s] a big challenge to show that we are up for them.”
Williams was rewarded with a start after claiming two match winners as a super-sub off the bench in the Red and White’s two previous matches, and he made a statement with an excellent hat-trick inside 63 minutes.
“David was already doing a good job coming into games [as a substitute] and got his chance to play as a striker because Harry was injured and he did very well,” van-t Schip said.
