Newcastle Jets coach Branko Culina has blamed his team’s 3-0 home loss to Queensland Roar on a failure to stick to the game plan.
The Jets were outclassed by a Brisbane outfit with Brazilian imports Henrique and Reinaldo putting the visitors 2-0 ahead midway through the first half.
Scottish import Charlie Miller sealed the win for the Roar with a spectacular strike in the 70th minute to consign Newcastle to its first home loss of the season.
“We are disappointed and we are disappointed in a big way,” Culina said after the match. “Disappointed for the supporters – they have been supportive and they expected better of us at home and we didn’t produce.”
“We played some decent football at times but we let ourselves down by not following the game plan to the way we have in the past.
“Usually we stick to a game plan and today it went out the window and it is a good lesson for us unless we maintain the discipline, organisation and teamwork that we are used to we can be beaten and beaten pretty much by anyone.”
“That is not taking anything away from Brisbane, they played well but we allowed them to play that way.”
Culina could offer no further excuses for the Jets, who were not without their opportunities up front, but they also looked decidedly shakey when pressed in defence.
“I was quite confident. We had a long week because we played Melbourne last Thursday so we had plenty of time to rest, we bought back our marquee player and I thought we would be stronger today but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”
“We are a more than decent side when we work as a team both in attack and defence. But you can’t just put the onus of the four guys at the back; we all need to defend as a team.”
Culina was found to be searching when asked if he could find any positives from his side’s performance.
“There are positives – there are always positives but as a team it is disappointing – three-nil at home, it is hard to come up with too many positives from that,” he said.
“The only positive is that we know we need to be disciplined and play to our game plan – if we don’t we are vulnerable.”
