View from the Top – West Sydney Berries coach John Calleja

Football NSW asks for his thoughts on the opening rounds; ?Our result against Sydney United last weekend was a good one for us as we haven?t got a thing there in the last couple of season but I?m sure they (United) will see it as two points dropped as they did create more chances.
?Obviously we would like to play better and we will as the season wears on but we battled well and scrambled for the last result and that shows me we have the desire, determination and certainly the players with a little bit of hunger to take us further this year.?
Having brought a few lads in during the off season it will always take time to get the patterns and shape right but how does Calleja see it so far: ?It is taking time to gel the side and we obviously change our style to suit the differing teams we come up against but last week we reverted to our usual shape and it worked for us in this instance but it doesn?t mean we will stay that way next weekend and beyond.
?You need to be adaptable in this league but we recruited well and have players with the commitment and hunger to go on from what we built last season and they have the capabilities to see it through.
?We want to push for the semi-finals and from there we?ll see where it takes us but it is too early to pre-empt or suggest that this will be the case because we all know anything can happen in football so in time honoured fashion we?ll just take each game as it comes and assess the situation regularly to see if we are hitting the bench marks we?ve set for ourselves.
?If we have then we need to push on, if not we?ll look at the areas we feel are the problem and concentrate on getting the right, just as all coach?s will be doing.?
The Berries have certainly come on this campaign and early signs are they can certainly give a few more fancied sides a shock or two along the way and we?ll revisit how things are going later in the year.
-By Micky Brock