Former Altona Magic player Koce Delev, right, shared Sydenham Park’s best-and-fairest award with Stephen Camilleri. 65986_07 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
SYDENHAM Park’s successful run in this year’s Football Federation Victoria State League Division Three North-West competition has secured the coaching future of Sash Becvinovski.
The Reds won promotion into Division Two after finishing second on the table with 17 wins from its 22 matches.
Club president Nick Maveski told Star winning promotion is the first step toward his Reds achieving a much higher goal.
“There’s two things the club looks at, one is senior promotion as a guide for how the team’s performing, and secondly the development of our juniors,” Manevski said.
“But the biggest thing is that the club has ambitions to play in the Victorian Premier League one day, so for us to move up a level is one of the highest priorities of the soccer club.”
In the end goal difference was the only factor separating the Reds from Avondale Heights, who won the title and will join Sydenham Park in Division Two next season.
Manevski says Becvinovski and senior assistant Alan Muscat have had a great impact on the club since their arrival at the start of the year.
“Culturally they’ve brought a level of professionalism and they’re very much disciplined,” Manevski said.
“They’ve brought strong discipline to the team and to the players.
“I think for the whole season the club received the lowest amount of yellow and red cards, so their discipline and their work ethic and professionalism on and off the track has taken us to a new level of where we need to be.”
Big seasons from former VPL players Stephen Camilleri and Koce Delev saw the pair share Sydenham Park’s best-and-fairest award, but Manevski said youngsters Alex Bennett and midfielder Tony Stalevski were also impressive.
Manevski is confident most of the promising squad will stick together for 2013, but said adding stability to the group is important for maintaining success at the higher level.
“You’ve got to have the majority of the players there and then to build on it we need a key striker and another quality midfielder,” he said.
“That’s pretty much where we’re looking at.”
However with the current squad already at the club’s disposal, Manevski has high expectations for 2013.
“We certainly want to be in the top four and we certainly want to consolidate in State Two,” Manevski said.
“But also at the same time we’d be seriously looking at making a charge at the top two if we can, because we certainly believe we’ve got a squad there that can do the job.”
