On Saturday the side fell 3-1 to Moreland Zebras — and although dominant at times, a lack of directness up top was the downfall for the Suns, who've since slid down a couple of spots on the National Premier League Two ladder.
“At the moment I think we are struggling to capitalise when we are on top of teams; we need to create more opportunities which is something we need to work on,” coach Craig Carley said.
“Our movement in transition needs to be better if we are going to be successful this season.”
On the back foot early, an incisive move down the left split the Suns defence with Ratip Cileli arriving to slot home a cut back for the Zebras’ first.
Twenty minutes later, however, and the Orangemen were thrust right back into the game.
Sublime link up play between Shane Dunne and Ellis Williamson produced a dangerous cross for the Suns, and lurking at the back post like any good winger should was George Murrihy who fired home on the volley to tie things up on the half-hour.
Fast forward 15 minutes and the Suns were practically heading to the sheds level.
However, failure to deal with a corner in the final passage of the first half had Zebras centre back Matt Whatley storm in to head home Moreland’s second.
Conceding whiskers before the whistle hurt the Suns, and it showed.
Struggling to make inroads throughout the second stanza frustrated the hosts and it all came to a head when an unfortunate slip up from goalkeeper Zac McLeod allowed Moreland’s Cam Watson to tap home from three yards and seal the Suns’ fate.
Carley spoke on the nature of the goals his side shipped, noting they took the wind out of the Suns’ sails completely.
“It was a really disappointing loss to be honest, it certainly wasn’t our best performance,” Carley said.
“I thought we started slow, but weathered the early storm, then once we got the equaliser we got on top of the game.
“It was a poor second goal to concede with the last kick of the half, it really was a kick in the guts and in the second half we never really got any momentum going whatsoever.
“We’ll need to bounce back this weekend against Werribee and hopefully get back to winning ways.”
Earlier, the under-21s salvaged a point thanks to late goals from Zac Ferlauto and Brenton Urbaniak, while the under-19s also nabbed a 2-2 draw.
Josh Dimit and Hassan Alhilfi were the Suns’ benefactors.
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