Ballarat City went down 2-1 to National Premier League two west conference top two side St Albans Saints at Morshead Park on Saturday night.
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City conceded early and the well-accomplished Saints made scoring and free-flowing soccer difficult for the home side, holding the lead for much of the match then delivering a telling blow with a touch over 10 minutes remaining, making it 2-0.
Michael Trigger scored a late goal in injury time and City pressed hard for an equaliser in the dying minutes, but the Saints came away with the three points.
St Albans will be pleased to get a win over Ballarat after City took home three points when it travelled to the Saints home deck earlier in the season.
Coach Danny Gnjidic said there were positives to take from the match, which saw the club celebrate Diversity Round, but the Saints brought a driven performance as expected.
“I think for large parts of it we were probably the better side,” Gnjidic said.
“They managed the game quite well...once they got the goal they were able to slow us down and we didn’t get the game on our terms as much as we could’ve and should’ve – that was where the frustration comes from.
“A disappointing result, but it was a pretty good effort against a good opponent.”
Gnjidic said one of the positives of last night, and for the season, had been its improved performances against the top three sides. City did not muster a point off those opponents last season, already it has four – as well as two draws against fourth-placed Zebras.
“We talked about a few areas of improvement for this year and that was definitely one of them. Against those top sides, we’ve been competitive and we’ve taken points off them.
“So that’s definitely a positive step.”
Gnjidic praised 19-year-old goalkeeper Ryan Schorback, who quickly came into the fray after the surprise departure of Aaron Romein.
After an early mistake that cost his side a goal, Schorback showed plenty of promise.
“He’s a young man who’s definitely capable of playing at this level, his opportunity is probably coming a little sooner than we all may have expected.
“He was good last night, it was an unfortunate goal with the misplaced...but the way he responded after that, he was excellent.
“It was a really encouraging performance.
“He’ll plenty of game time and plenty of development.
“He would’ve expected to play 12 under-20 games for the run home and now he’ll get to play 12 senior games, from a development point of view that’s probably worth 40 or 50 under-20 games.”