Victory Youths Head Coach Darren Davies (c) has been in charge since September.

“You keep thinking about it the whole night, replaying it in your mind. What if I had been able to stop that goal?”

Keegan Coulter, 16, found it hard to fall asleep that night. There had been larger losses previously, to less capable opponents, but this one was particularly hard to take.

“The last goal, the ball got whipped in, I had a man on the back post and two defenders marking, but he headed it down that way so I was… my momentum was to my left and he just headed it across me… and there was nothing I could do.”

Melbourne Victory Youths, with Coulter in goal that day, had just lost a nail-biter of a match away to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) after two late goals in the last ten minutes. Needless to say, the young goalkeeper did not get much shuteye the night after.

“It was depressing, man. Everyone was just gutted, shattered.”

It was only the Year 11 student’s third outing for Victory’s youth team, and his third loss in a row. But before you jump to conclusions about the young goalie’s culpability in the team’s losing run, consider the fact that Victory have not won all season. In fact, the stats make for downright grim reading.

Nine games played, nine games lost. Seven goals scored against 29 conceded. To say the team have not done all too well is perhaps a bit of an understatement. Melbourne Victory Youths are stuck at the foot of the National Youth League (NYL) table with a goal difference of -22.

And yet, while the situation looks grim on paper, there is hope. For quietly, a revolution is brewing.

Few things have gone right for the seniors this campaign, culminating in head coach Mehmet Durakovic’s sacking this week. A successor is yet to be announced, but it was a scenario already played out in the youth ranks earlier this season after former youth coach Durakovic was promoted to managing the first team full-time.

In came Welshman Darren Davies ten days or so before the start of the season. The same age as Victory’s other fresh (and undeniably more famous) recruit Harry Kewell, the 33-year-old set about his task with relish, determined to instil a new philosophy of football into his young charges.

“We’re confident Darren will help to shape the next generation of players at our club and we’re not going to be afraid to give youngsters an opportunity if they prove to be good enough,” then-Football Director Francis Awaritefe remarked upon his arrival.

Starting out at Tottenham Hotspur, Davies’s journeyman career saw him turn out in the lower reaches of professional football in Scotland, England and Wales. But it wasn’t till he took up coaching at the age of 28 that his career really blossomed.

“When I fell out of the [professional] game at 28, I didn’t know what to do,” Davies recalled. “I didn’t have any education because I’d been playing football all my life. But I’d always loved coaching and I started taking my coaching badges whilst I was playing the game [part-time], and then I got my first academy director’s role at Port Talbot.”

One thing led to another, and Davies soon found himself in charge at the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) in Australia. Before long, Melbourne Victory came calling and although he admitted it was a wrench leaving the setup at the QAS, the siren call was too strong to resist.

Three months on, progress might not have translated to results but the signs are encouraging. Despite early season whitewashes, including 5-1 and 6-0 reverses, the team has been starting to look far more competitive in recent matches. They came closest in the rescheduled Week 2 fixture against AIS in Canberra, before letting slip a 2-1 lead late in the game. That the loss hurt so much more than the heavier defeats early on showed how much progress the team had made.

“The first half an hour [after the game], we were absolutely gutted but Darren told us to keep our heads up because we deserved to win,” Adam Nakic, 18, painted pretty much the same picture.

“Look we’re playing the way we want to play, the end product is what we need and I’m sure we’ll get there in the next few weeks.”

There was a silver lining though as the central defender remembered his standout moment from the match.

“There was a moment in the first half [at a corner kick situation] where I was marking their captain (Connor Chapman) who played for Australia, which must mean he’s really good, but I got up there and muscled him off and won the ball, just like Darren’s been teaching in training,” he beamed.

Keegan Coulter is one of three goalkeepers who have turned out for the Youths this season.

Davies’s philosophy has been all too apparent in games this season, especially in recent weeks. The team has been determined to adopt an attacking brand of football, with patient build up play from the back and passes through midfield instead of a more direct style.

“Adam Nakic has been used to getting the ball out of his feet and going route one, because that’s what he’s been taught from a young age,” explained Davies. “I’ve come in and I’m trying to change a 17-year-old’s habits, it’s difficult. But he’s been working ever so hard to change.”

“I need to give these boys the best technical and tactical tools to be professional footballers wherever they may play in the end.”

So what does it all mean for the Melbourne Victory youth team, with no points on the board and half the season left to play? What yardstick is there when improvement, rather than results are a priority?

“I was asked the question the other day about not having won a game all season and I said you know what? [Victory] played LA Galaxy in front of 40,000 people and three of my youth boys played. That is success, not being top of the youth league,” Davies stated with conviction.

“I was sitting in Canberra watching on TV, and when those three youth boys come on, that gives me a sense of pride that you just can’t buy. You know that for me shows we’re on our way forward, we’re on the right track.”

There is a sense of having turned the corner though, none more so when you compare where the players started out and where they are at the moment. With a very young squad made up of mainly 16 and 17-year-olds, Davies has often had to send them out against 19 and 20-year-olds with stronger bodies and more experienced football minds. It is a very steep learning curve, but one he fervently hopes will reap benefits in the long term.

For now, the Melbourne Victory youths have their eyes on the matchup against the Newcastle Jets at Kingston Heath over the weekend. They’ll be hoping to push their opponents to the limit and hopefully grab their first points of the season. The ability is there, the belief is slowly appearing and it appears a matter of time before their efforts bear fruit.

The last time these two teams met, it was damage limitation. This time, they’re going in for the kill.