Alex Ullmann is adamant his Leeds Maccabi side will bounce back from their nightmare opening day defeat after the MJSL new boys were handed a brutal battering.
Leeds were left reeling after being hit for eight against a rampant South Manchester 2nd as Neil Collins’ men ran riot.
Jack Lee and Mikey Levitan both bagged hat-tricks for South, while Aden Levin grabbed a brace to make it a miserable return to the MJSL for the Yorkshire side.
But Ullmann insists Leeds will still be a force this season and says the return of key players will give them an extra edge as they look to avenge their horror showing.
“It wasn’t the start to the season we were planning of course, but there were some positives,” said Ullmann.
“We’ve got lots of players still injured and quite a few away on holiday, so a lot of the boys were playing out of position.
“It’s virgin territory for us and it’s only the first game so we know we’ll improve and get stronger as the season goes on.
“South Manchester played very well and played some very good football but we lacked match experience because we were forced into playing a very young side.
“Our team last Sunday probably had an average age of 19 or 20 with many of them having not played together before.
“It’s only the first game of the season and I really believe that when everybody’s back and fit then we’ll be ready to fire on all cylinders.
“We know that it wasn’t the ideal start to the season but it’s all new to us so we’ll improve for sure.”
The task doesn’t get any easier for Leeds as they face a testing home clash with highly-fancied Haroldeans<.
The Merseysiders opened their season with the 4-0 thrashing of Republic of Mancunia 2nd with Josh Silverberg, Bobby Abrams and Cabral Christian all on target.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game against Haroldeans and we’ve had some good feedback on them,” added Ullmann.
“But we’re at home and it’s familiar territory so hopefully that will give us an advantage.
“We’re also going to have some of our senior players available and hopefully we can gain a result.”
South Manchester boss Neil Collins is now hoping his side can build on their first win of the season by claiming all three points against an in-form Sporting JLGB.
He said: “We’re going to be missing five players so it’s going to be a bit uncertain against a team which caused us major problems last year.
“But this is an odd season so far so who knows what will happen?”
Reigning champions Manchester Maccabi 3rd showed they’ll be the team to beat once again this year after thumping Broughton 5-1.
Sam Calmonson, Jake Bentwood, Marc Magid, Jake Kelly and Jake Rubens were all on target for Maccabi with Harrison Kaufman netting a consolation for Broughton.
Moishe Hasid’s controversial strike gave Republic of Mancunia a hard-fought win over Crumpsall.
Hasid headed home the only goal of the game from a corner – despite the ball appearing to have gone out of play before landing inside the Crumpsall penalty area.
