Having been winless so far in the 2021/22 A-League Women season up until last week, the introduction of Natalie Tathem into Brisban Roar’s game-day squad looks to be paying dividends for coach Gareth McPherson.
Tathem, who made her first appearance for the Roar coming off the bench in last week’s 4-2 win against Melbourne Victory, assisted Brisbane’s go-ahead goal and injected an undeniable energy into the Roar as they made the most of their numerical advantage netting two late goals.
Up until last week’s positive result the Roar were winless through their first four games of the season – losing three and drawing one.
However, the resilient performance they put on against the Victory to take three points away from the reigning champions shows that this Roar squad has plenty of fight and belief.
Having watched the Roar’s shaky start from the sidelines as she recovered from an ACL injury, Tathem looks to be the spark they needed to get their season back on track.
“We need to be that team that fights to the last minute because we’ve been on the other end of that, so as much as I think those games have sucked us losing in the last three minutes it’s given us the fight to be able to beat these teams we know we can do it,” said Tathem.
The win against the Victory was a much-needed confidence boost for the Roar, who had seemingly been so unlucky in their previous fixtures not to come away with three points.
“I don’t feel like we have been played off the park. There was a bit of pressure because we know we needed to start winning games to make finals,” Tathem said.
“I think coming back from 2-0 down just does more to prove to ourselves that it doesn’t matter what situation we’re in; We can do it.”
Tathem’s cameo for the Roar showed why McPherson gambled bringing an injured player up to Queensland from the Victory.
Coming on in the 85th minute against her former club having not played in an entire year, Tathem was composed and clinical assisting Shea Connors for the go-ahead goal in the 90th minute.
The win was Roar coach McPherson’s first in the top flight as a head coach and undoubtedly has him sleeping a little easier knowing he and his squad have what it takes.
“Relief, pure and utter relief; we had been, we felt, very close in two or three of our previous games and I learned some pretty harsh lessons as a squad that lacks experience in this competition but we accepted those and we kept going on the training pitch and kept working on areas of the game to to help us close out matches so it was nice to finally get a win,” McPherson said.
The Roar will look to carry their momentum from the victory against Melbourne into this week’s fixture at home against Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday afternoon.
Feature image credit: Paul Smith
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