QUEANBEYAN City FC may have bowed out of the ACT State League finals with a 3-0 loss to Weston Molonglo a fortnight ago, but coach Zjmeiko Trajkovski believes better results are in store for next season.
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His comments follow a tough season for the club's State League division one side, who were defending grand finalists this season, but played well just to get to finish fourth and in the finals after losing eight players during the pre-season.
A total of 15 former Queanbeyan City players across multiple grades left the club to join the Monaro Panthers in a newly formed team that played in the State League reserves competition.
But with a large crop of younger players now having a full season of State League division one game time up their sleeves, Trajkovski said the team had built over the last five months.
"We brought some 16 and 18 year old players in this year, and they worked hard at training, but that's the way it had to be. We had to work hard all year," said Trajkovski.
"We had to deal with some injuries as well, but that's football for you."
While Trajkovski spent a lot of the season raising young players, he had the benefit of experienced players in skipper Goran Milutinovic, Danny Byrne and Daniel Crkovski, who stuck with the club when most of it's core playing group did not.
"Daniel kicked 16 goals, and he was the best striker in our team," said Trajkovski.
"Goran had a perfect season really...his talk on the field gave him a lot of confidence, and for the young boys, he was very good."
"Danny was a leader at the back [in defence], and he was up there with a lot of young players, but he helped them a lot, and he only missed one game to injury."
Trajkovski could not confirm that he would be able to keep the same side for next year, but said he hoped to come back on board as coach.