The SCR Altach does not come out of the crisis even under coach Ludovic Magnin. Also in the third game under the leadership of the Swiss there were neither points nor goals to celebrate with a 0:2 home defeat against Admira (match report >>>).
In the meantime, the Vorarlbergers have had nine defeats in a row (goal difference 1:18).
“As the bottom of the table, you can’t expect everything to go smoothly. We’ve invested a lot, but it’s not enough,” said Magnin after the game in the “Sky” interview.
The Vorarlbergers certainly had their chances. A Nuhiu goal was disallowed in the first half because of a foul on Admira goalie Leitner, shortly afterwards the ex-England legionnaire failed to take a penalty on the Lower Austrian goalkeeper. In addition, Christoph Monschein only hit the pole after changing sides.
“Both my strikers would have had a chance to break their knots today, but that’s football,” said Magnin, who admitted “it’s hard to take losing this game.”
Above all, the foul decision against Nuhiu annoyed the Swiss, who held back with criticism of the referee Heiss.
“I don’t want to say anything about the referee’s performance. I don’t want to make myself immediately unpopular in Austria.”
Nuhiu laments the lack of VAR intervention
Even non-scorer Nuhiu could not understand the decision: “I think that the scene was not to whistle.”
“The goalkeeper isn’t even in the five. I jump for a header and so does he. The referee can whistle like that, but why isn’t there a VAR decision in this situation? The situation wasn’t that clear. But it doesn’t help anyway to talk to the referee. We have to take that into account. But of course that was a sticking point in the game today.”
A few minutes later, Nuhiu could have turned things around with his penalty kick. “But the goalie did a great job.”
Goalie Leitner passed the praise on to Admira’s goalkeeper coach Martin Dedek. “In preparation for the game, I did a video lesson with the goalkeeping coach and he gave me the perfect tip.”
Not least because of Leitner’s parade, the people from the south of town were finally able to celebrate a sense of achievement after ten games.
Herzog hopes for “more self-confidence”
“The win is extremely important for mental health and morale. Even if the points will soon be shared. We have at least a bit of a lead now,” said Leitner, who points to the current point cushion of seven points over Altach at the bottom.
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His coach Andreas Herzog had a similar view: “It was an important win. We dominated the game, played calmly in possession and let the opponent attack. It was important that we won again after such a long time. I hope that the team now has more self-confidence and that we can perform with more ease again.”
Roman Kerschbaum, scorer to make it 1-0, also emphasizes the importance of this success: “The relief is huge. There were 10 games without a win. We performed well, but were never rewarded.”
Zwischenbrugger self-critical
Altach defender Jan Zwischenbrugger, who didn’t look good when Mustapha scored the second, finds it difficult to take positive things for the future after the game: “At first it’s difficult to take anything positive from this game. My performance too wasn’t like I could really help the team. In the first 20 minutes, Admira bought the nerve from us.”
“You could have scored Nuhiu’s first goal, but unfortunately we didn’t come back after that. The performance wasn’t what we had imagined. But it doesn’t help. We’re stuck at the bottom and can’t manage the victories that we would need,” says the veteran self-critically.
Despite the dreary situation, Zwischenbrugger is not giving up hope of staying up in the league: “In the end, it’s all about hard work. We have to fix the simple mistakes in the game and everyone has to do their best on the pitch. Then it can work. It works But we don’t at the moment and that’s why we’re rightly down there.”
Coach Magnin is also primarily trying to ensure that the team does not completely lose their belief in themselves: “It was a slap in the face, the gap is getting bigger, but the last word has not yet been spoken. As a coach, you have to be in front stand and see the positive. It’s important that the team doesn’t give up and maybe the knot will burst next week.”
Although the chances of that shouldn’t be too great, the Altachers will be visiting champions and table leaders Red Bull Salzburg next Saturday.
