Ballarat City were unable to return home with the three points after travelling to take on Nunawading City in a cross conference National Premier League two clash.
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Coach Danny Gnjidic said his side was “flat” and struggled to execute in a manner that has become customary in Ballarat’s recent performances – the end result, a 3-1 loss.
The reason for such a lack in intensity?
Gnjidic was not keen on making any excuses for the sub-par performance, but felt a factor could have been its indifferent preparation.
Ballarat played the remainder of its fog-effected clash with Northcote City on Wednesday night, the remaining 30 minutes. Meaning it only had one training session devoted to the weekend’s match. While the club’s record in Sunday matches this season has been poor, winning just one from six fixtures.
“It was probably as flat as we’ve been for quite some time,” Gnjidic said.
“Our improvement and good results have been on the back of some consistent efforts both collectively and individually. But today, the boys tried hard, but collectively we just didn’t put it together.
“I’ve spoken about execution before and we didn’t do that (well) today.
“We’ve been up for a while...we weren’t poor by any means, we just weren’t at the same level.”
Both sides created chances throughout the first half, but it was Nunawading that made the breakthrough in the 45th minute to take a 1-0 into half-time.
Ballarat managed to find an equaliser through Liam Harding shortly after returning from the main change.
But Nunawading skipped clear again as the visitors were forced to rally once more.
Ballarat pressed hard, but the home side sealed the match with one of the final possessions of the day, catching Ballarat out on the counter attack to score in the dying stages and clinch a 3-1 victory.
