'We copped a bit of a rollicking at half-time': how Yorke spray helped spark Bulls in the second-half

It’s not always common to hear a coach give out a half-time spray when his side is leading 1-0.

But in the case of Macarthur FC head coach Dwight Yorke on Sunday afternoon, he felt he had to give his side a rev-up, with the Bulls perhaps fortunate to lead by a goal when the first-half came to an end against Newcastle Jets.

Against the run of play, Al Hassan Toure fired the home side into the lead on the brink of half-time, but within seconds Filip Kurto gave away a penalty at the other end – giving Newcastle a chance at equalising almost immediately after going behind.

Fortunately for the Bulls, Beka Mikeltadze fired his penalty wide, which ensured Macarthur would lead at the break, despite being arguably outplayed by their opponents in the opening 45.

And Yorke wasn’t pleased with how things had panned out in the first 45.

“We got a bit lucky there in the first-half, we rode our luck a bit and we know that. We copped a rollicking from the boss at half-time, so we knew about that for sure,” Macarthur centre-back Jonathan Aspropotamitis said on Network 10 post-game.

His “rollicking” sparked a second-half turnaround which saw Yorke’s charges get on the front-foot and put the result away – with Ulises Davila firing home a second and wrapping up all three points – as the Bulls came away with a 2-0 win.

And Aspropotamitis felt as if the spray helped fire up he and his team-mates to try and turn things around after half-time – but hopes the win can start to spark some more consistency in their form.

“I think there’s been a few games like that this season (where Macarthur hasn’t been the better team),” Aspropotamitis said.

“We probably didn’t deserve things, but we stuck it out, we defended well. Okay, yeah, we rode our luck a little bit but we’ve taken our chance when we had it.

Yeah, there was a few expletives at half-time as you can imagine. But it got a reaction out of us which is great and the second half we played much better. Probably could have got a couple more.

“Had one at the end there with (Anthony) Carter but yeah we’ll take those three points and good to get back on a winning run. Hopefully now we can give a bit of consistency because everyone in the league seems to be up and down at the moment.”

Yorke also weighed in on the performance post-game, opening up on why he wasn’t too particularly pleased with their first-half showing.

“Satisfied about the result, wasn’t particularly satisfied with the first-half performance,” Yorke said.

That’s me being a little bit critical about my team because the standard we try to set here but nevertheless, we were after the results which was the most important thing at the end of the day, and we managed to do that so from the point of view, I’m very pleased.

“Very pleased with the second half performance of course. Second half I think we were far more assertive in the way we play.

“We just couldn’t get a foothold into the game… the transition was breaking down and coming back. The turnovers were far too easy done. We wanted to especially in the heat as well.

“So players having to work extremely hard to get behind the ball and when you do lose the ball cheaply like we did in some areas early on that causes some problems.

“Things that again, you learn, week in, week out about things that you can be better at and although we are an improving team, there are some things that we can be far more better at as well.”

The result also ensured the Bulls would go back into the top four and secure a fifth clean sheet of the season – which is the equal-most in the Isuzu UTE A-League with Melbourne City and Western Sydney Wanderers.

“Yeah, it means a lot. I think from a defenders point of view it means everything we pride ourselves on defending,” Aspropotamitis said.

“Last week, we slipped up a little bit, we copped a few goals that we weren’t proud of and we had to look at ourselves during the week and we knew that wasn’t us. So we rectified that and so happy to keep a clean sheet.”

A big part of their defensive solidity has come down to Aspropotamitis’ partnership in the heart of defence with Tomislav Uskok – who have helped keep things steady in the heart of defence.

The 26-year-old spoke glowingly of his relationship with Uskok, describing him as one of the top central defenders in the competition.

“I’ve known Tomi (Uskok) for a long time. I’ve played with him at Western United and he’d come up through the NPL with Sydney United and he had a brief time in the A-League before, but I always knew he could play in the A-League and he’s showing that,” Aspropotamitis said.

Now he’s showing that for the last three seasons, really that he’s up to this level. One of the best centre backs in the league, so it’s good to play with him.

“We have a good connection. We’re good mates off the pitch. Always having coffees that helps, few debriefs over coffee, which is nice.

“But yeah he’s a great player. I love playing with him. And to be fair, look, everyone in that back four and Fil (Kurto) as well, being so solid this season, and we are just hoping to continue that for the rest of the year.”