Max Hatzoglou
Hume City new coach Petr Tichy says big results are “just around the corner” despite its 8-game losing streak in the National Premier League.
Hume drew their first two games of the season 0-0 and 3-3 and have since lost every game to round 10.
Following their round eight loss to St Albans at home, former coach Nick Hegarty announced he was stepping down from the job, in which Tichy has now taken over after assistant coaching the team for the past three seasons.
Tichy believes their Australia Cup 1-0 win over fellow National Premier League team Dandenong City last Tuesday on April 26 has given his side confidence to turnaround their winless 10-game start to the season.
“Even though I gave chances to some youngsters and players that don’t always play, it’s still NPL opposition, they are in the same bubble as us, so it’s important that we went 1-0 up and held it quite comfortably until the end,” Tichy said.
“It was a boost for the confidence and even the players that don’t normally get much game time, they showed me that they can play and they can contribute to good defence and going forward, so I will have big decisions to make over the next few days.
“That’s what I want to have, tough decisions to make instead of knowing who’s going to play, who’s going to be on the bench so that’s part of the job I enjoy.
“I really like to see the 21 players competing for each other’s spot and that brings the best out of everyone.”
Hume finished fourth last season, winning nine games before the season was cut short at 18 matches due to Covid.
Tichy says he would like to get his team out of the bottom two relegation situation and push towards a mid-table finish this season.
“Of course we want to get out of the relegation bottle as soon as possible, don’t leave anything last minute and I know that the group is strong enough that we can really steer it up and get closer to even the top six,” he said.
“I feel if we have a good winning streak, the group is strong enough to make a few wins in a row and the league is so competitive that other teams will beat each other.
“So we can definitely move up, but the goal is one game at a time, Eastern Lions this week to move us off the bottom.
“One game at a time we move up.”
Tichy said his side are on track to fix their defensive struggles from earlier in the season which he believes will bring their team together with their attacking game already in good shape.
“I feel like we’re on the right track there [defensively] and the group feels much more secure and better when it comes to defending,” he said.
“I have seen a good response and I know there will be some big results for us and it’s just around the corner.
“At training it is so positive, you wouldn’t think we’re on the bottom.
“Some clubs would be a mess in this situation, but it hasn’t been like that for us.”
Hume has a big opportunity to begin their season turnaround in round 11 on Saturday as they faced a second last Eastern Lions who are two points ahead of Hume.
A win would be Hume’s first for the season, putting them one point ahead of the Lions and off the bottom of the ladder.
