Just two wins but plenty of positives. That was coach Graham Marshall's final breakdown of the Southern United youth team's season.
The side finished the National Youth League ninth of 10 teams, claiming wins against Canterbury United and Eastern Suburbs. However, Marshall was happy with the campaign, emphasising the team's focus was on development, rather than winning games.
''The season has been quite a positive one for us. We were always looking to develop as a team throughout the season; we didn't really focus on results,'' he said.
''Winning games is good for them and good for their confidence, but the end result is to make them a better player and to develop them into a first team player for Southern United.
''So overall I think we achieved that from the start to the end of the season.''
Much like the first team, goal scoring was the side's biggest problem. The team became adept at creating chances, but could not put them away. In one game it got off 26 shots and only converted one of them. That is problematic for football in the region and something Marshall said needed improving.
''If we're looking at anything we should take out of the season, it is the fact that we need to put a bit more emphasis on goal scoring. [We need to] find some quality strikers that have the ability to score goals game in, game out.
''At the start of the year we had trials and everyone in that age-group could trial and even in those trials we couldn't really acknowledge goal scorers. I think what we need to do is within the area find these talented strikers and get them in earlier and make sure they're part of the squad if they can be.
''But also emphasising a bit more with the juniors coming through the grades how important it is to score goals.''
The league was won by Hamilton Wanderers.
He added that remaining strong defensively for the entire game was important. In the final three games of the season, the side had opened up as it chased the game, finding itself exposed on defence in the process. That resulted in it losing those games 5-0, 4-1 and 3-2.
Despite that, Southern had been one of the league's best first-half defensive teams. It had also competed well early in the season against several of the league's top teams.
There were players coming through Marshall believed could help the first team in the coming years should they keep moving in the right direction.
Notable among those were goalkeeper Liam Whittaker, Matt Brazier and Riley Anderton. It was a big step up to the senior national league, although he said getting those players training in the first team environment was the next step to bridging that gap.
-By Jeff Cheshire
