Bathurst '75 suffer 4-0 defeat to Illawarra Premier League's Albion Park White Eagles

Played at Proctor Park 5, '75 went into the half-time break down 1-0 but three goals in the second half from the Wollongong club resulted in the visitors walking away with a 4-0 win and progression to the next round of the competition.

'75 coach Mark Comerford said it was a tough match for his side.

"The team we played are from the Illawarra Premier League and they started their comp last week, so they're fairly advanced for the preparation for the season while we've only just got back into for about six weeks," he said."

"They were pretty quick. We only had four players on the bench but we had a couple of guys that aren't a part of the Western Premier League set-up."

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Comerford said Albion Park scored the one and only goal in the first half just before the break.

"The first half was quite good. They probably had the better of the first half without creating too many outstanding chances, so we certainly competed with them," he said.

"They scored late in the first half. Nil-all at the break would've been good but they were always going to present problems purely with the technical ability.

"As the second half wore on, we just ran out of legs. They had guys to bring off the bench and they were quality.

"If anything, it was a good pre-season game for us. To get a result out of that at any point would've been great. This competition is probably just a little bit early for us, compared to some of the other teams."

Comerford said there was plenty of positives in the first 45 minutes of the match.

"The first 45 minutes was really positive, we did a lot of good things and we looked good," he said.

"Defensively we were okay, structurally we were alright. We were winning lots of ball. But we just kept turning the ball over too quickly.

"We just kept turning the ball over too quickly and giving it back to them.

"It took us a bit of time to work out their system, the way they were playing. Once we sorted that out, we settled out and got into it."

Only a fortnight ago, '75 played a trial against Adamstown Rosebud's first grade team, and Comerford said Saturday's performance was much improved compared to the one against the Northern NSW NPL club.

"We played a lot better then how we played against the Adamstown team. It was a good improvement," he said.

"We just need to get a couple more trial games before the season starts. Hopefully we'll be in a good spot."

'75 currently has no more trial matches penned in, before its Western Premier League season gets underway on April 15.

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