COACH John Aloisi has lauded Noah Botic after the young striker stepped up to score a late winner from the penalty spot in Western United’s 2-1 season-opening victory over Melbourne City in the A-League Men.<\/p>\n
When Nuno Reis was penalised for handball, Botic stepped up and coolly converted past former teammate Jamie Young in the 87th minute at AAMI Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Lachie Wales had opened the scoring for United on the hour mark after being teed up by new arrival Daniel Penha, but City signing Tolgay Arslan equalised two minutes later.<\/p>\n
“The first year he was here, he played an NPL game and we had a penalty, and he didn’t take it,” Aloisi said of Botic.<\/p>\n
“And I said to him, ‘Why didn’t you take that penalty?’, and he said ‘Someone else wanted it’.<\/p>\n
“I said, ‘You’re a striker, you want to score goals, be that player to score those important goals’.<\/p>\n
“And so that’s how much he’s matured and grown. He’s only 21 but he’s still matured in the sense that he believes he’s the one that can lead the line.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got players that can help him with that, but he showed good composure when he was fatigued right at the end of the game to win it.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t have a lot of opportunities but he kept on believing that his moment would come. It did and he took it.”<\/p>\n
Aloisi allayed fears Botic had injured himself celebrating, saying the 21-year-old was cramping.<\/p>\n
“I would’ve been upset, the way he ran off celebrating, if he ended up doing his hamstring,” he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard not to celebrate when you score the winning goal.”<\/p>\n
Only three City players who started last season’s grand final loss to Central Coast started the match: Jamie Maclaren, Curtis Good and Nuno Reis, while United fielded four new signings.<\/p>\n
City thought they had taken the lead in the 33rd minute, but Maclaren’s close-range effort was scratched for offside, while United keeper Thomas Heward-Belle denied the striker in the 49th.<\/p>\n
“There were a lot of positives,” City coach Rado Vidosic said, adamant his team would build chemistry.<\/p>\n
“We had patches [when we controlled the game… but from a defensive point of view, we are still a little bit away from where we would like to be.<\/p>\n
“Our aggressiveness was not at the level it really should be.”<\/p>\n