Tech College Old Boys player/coach Trent Williamson could not have made his point any clearer to his team when he scored their only goal in the final 15 minutes of the 3-1 loss to defending Manawatu League champions Massey.
Not choosing to take the field until late in the piece on Saturday, Williamson, who is still TCOB's top scorer this year with three, wanted to show his forwards the best positioning to set up an opportunity at Palmerston North's Twin Turfs.
"It upsets them too [that I scored]," he said. "I've been yelling at them to stand on the post, just because there's a lot going through the circle."
When his tired players went their own way, Williamson came on at 3-0 down and duly based himself near the Massey post, popping in the late goal to bring the final margin back to two.
As the first game of Round 2, TCOB had still shown a lot of improvement against the table-toppers, who beat them 6-0 in the opening league game in April.