Although Bay manager Mick Mulhern did not hide his disappointment at the 2-0 defeat at West Auckland, he felt there were positives to come out of the game, especially in the first half.
“To be fair I was quite pleased with the lads. Obviously I was disappointed with the result, they caught us a little cold in the second half, they certainly upped their tempo and started to press us and we haven’t dealt with it when the cross has come in for their first goal. He’s got in between them unfortunately and we were chasing the game at that point. But when I look back on the whole game, in the first 45 minutes there was nothing in it. We had good shape, good possession and created chances so I was pleased and it was a case of could we build on that and get a goal for us to dominate and win the game? But unfortunately when we play the top teams they’re going to have a little spell and that’s when they got the goal, but we stayed in the game and it was pleasing because I’ve seen us crumble earlier on in the season. But we haven’t today, we had chances, a couple of good crosses went in, one from Olly on the right hand side. We stuck at it and at that point you think we’re in the game, do you stick or twist? You want to try and get back in the game but you don’t want to go gung-ho and open it up, and as it is we got caught from a free kick and then it’s too late to respond really, so it’s one of those things.
“Generally I’m quite pleased I think we’re developing quite nicely. Obviously things have changed over recent months and now we’ve got a settled shape and a settled team – almost – and the players are responding. I’m pleased with them, we’re getting better. We’re not going to win every week but this season it’s about development and competing and we are competing. We’re playing some of the fancied teams at the moment and we’re not going to win every week but I’ll be happy as long as we give a good account of ourselves and I think we did that today. I couldn’t criticise the endeavour, the work rate or the attitude of any of the players. The thing was they (West Auckland) have taken their couple of chances and we haven’t. They haven’t taken us apart or totally dominated us, which is what’s happened to us in some previous games. So things bode well as a team, as we develop and move on. We’re not the finished article yet but as long as we can compete that’s the most important thing at the moment.”
