Canberra United’s captain Sam Brown says his side need to “cherish the ball” more in the opening minutes of the game after the Foxtel Y-League side conceded inside the opening ten minutes for the second match in a row.
United fell to their second consecutive loss to start the Foxtel Y-League 2019/20 season, losing 2-0 to the Western Sydney Wanderers after two early goals.
Brown said his young side needs to learn to have composure in the opening stanza of the match if they are to trouble Newcastle Jets this Sunday morning (1 December).
“The biggest thing for us that we saw in week one against Mariners and week two against Wanderers is that we are frantic in the early stages of the game,” Brown said.
“We tend to win the ball back but within one or two passes we tend to give it back. We need to learn to cherish the ball a bit more and hold onto possession.”
Despite the opening 12 minutes, Brown said there were plenty of positives to take away from their opening two matches.
“We stayed with the Wanderers throughout the rest of the match and asked them a few a questions in the second half,” he said. “There is a lot of positive signs in the improvement that we have made from week one to week two.
“We have enough internal quality and we know the standard of the competition.
“The message this week is to keep our heads and go out there and play our game. If we can do that for 90 minutes and be mature to know when to slow the game down and when to look forward and attack, we will have joy this weekend.”
United come into their second away game of the season looking for their first points against a winless Jets side, who will look to bounce back from their 8-3 loss to Sydney FC in their opening match of the season.
Match details for Round 3 of the Foxtel Y-League |
Newcastle Jets v Canberra United
Kick-off at 10am on Sunday (1 December)
No 2. Sportsground, Newcastle
