GV Suns under-20s defeated by Manningham United

Elijah Brooker got the visitors off to a flyer when he hunted down what seemed like a nothing chance to bury the opener for the Suns.

Not long after, the hours spent training paid off for the Suns when Cooper Gosstray ghosted around the back post to head home the second from a textbook set-piece play.

But that is when the honeymoon period abruptly ended for the Suns, with Manningham astonishingly hitting back with six unanswered goals of its own.

Hammad Agog managed to add a third, but that did not do much to mask the bitter taste left in the mouths of Suns players and spectators.

Coach Stuart Vance reflected on what was a frustrating result for his side.

‘‘Obviously really disappointing result 6-3, a really disappointing performance from the players, I think the whole issue with the performance was completely psychological,’’ Vance said.

‘‘I think players had it in the back of their heads from previous results and we had some players just switch off and go into auto-pilot and we got a deserved rude awakening and, to be honest, it could’ve been more.’’

Vance said Saturday’s lacklustre performance resulted in the most goals he had seen his side concede since taking over as coach at the beginning of last year.

‘‘In the second half we came out and we were just not at the races at all and they scored six goals unanswered, which is my heaviest defeat since taking over the 20s,’’ he said.

‘‘Seven or eight players switched off, Cooper Gosstray on the other hand was excellent throughout the whole 90 minutes, he showed the real qualities that we expect from all our players, but we can’t have three guys on form and the rest of the team going through the motions.

‘‘Hopefully this will be a wake up call for these guys, you can’t take things for granted, hopefully we can turn it around this weekend and get things back on track.’’

The Suns sit in fourth place and will face off against ninth-placed Eastern Lions at home on Saturday.