By Tara Murray
Whittlesea Ranges will be eager to put a round one nightmare behind it in National Premier League West 2.
With hopes of starting the new season on a high, the Ranges players were given a rude shock as they lost to St Albans Saints 6-0.
Ranges coach Tony Ciantar said it was one of those games where things just didn’t go right.
“We started off OK,” he said.
“The game was pretty even up until we conceded a silly goal. We pretty much handed them the first goal.
“There was a head clash just before half-time and when play started up, they scored a second goal.
“When you’re 2-0 down you have to chase things and try and get back into. We had three at the back and fell apart rather then get back into it.”
While disappointed with the performance, Ciantar said there was plenty of time to put the result behind them and get back on track.
“We’ve got the first game out of the way and hopefully we can pick up from there,” he said.
“We know what mistakes we made and what we have to fix. We were missing two of our main defenders through injury – that didn’t help.
“Hopefully, we’ll get a win next week.”
Ciantar, who ran his first pre-season after joining the Ranges mid-way through last season, said this year’s side was better on paper than that fielded last year.
He said a number of new players had been added to the squad.
Among the additions are a couple of central defenders, a striker and some midfielders.
Papua New Guinean George Slefendorfas returns to the club having played for the Ranges in 2016,.
Janiel De Silva, Adrian Logozzo, David Younan and Baggio Yousif are among the other inclusions.
The Ranges this week will face Ballarat City.
It was a better start for Hume City in the NPL top grade, with a big win against Dandenong Thunder.
Hume scored three times in the opening half, before adding a fourth in the second half to seal the 4-0 win.
Mitch Cooper, in his first game for Hume, scored the first two goals, while James Brown scored the other two.
MORE NPL NEWS
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/werribee-city-starts-with-sizzle/
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/on-song-st-albans-saints-well-and-truly-alive/
