Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi struggled to take any positives from his team’s 3-2 loss away to Wellington Phoenix on Thursday.
Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi struggled to take any positives from his team’s 3-2 loss away to Wellington Phoenix on Thursday.
Heart led 2-0 against the run of play early in the contest at Westpac Stadium, but conceded once in the first half and twice in the second to leave New Zealand empty-handed.
And a bad result for the Heart was compounded by Sydney FC’s surprise victory over league leaders Central Coast, the result condemning Melbourne to the foot of the table.
“All in all it was a very disappointing night, except for the first 15 minutes,” Aloisi said.
“But the game goes for 90 minutes.
Golgol Mebrahtu’s free-kick and an Andrew Durante own goal opened up a healthy lead for the Heart, against the early run of play.
But as soon as Vince Lia dispossessed Jason Hoffman five minutes later and supplied Louis Fenton for the Phoenix opener, the visitors’ confidence appeared to wane.
Aloisi’s team were missing first-choice defensive duo Simon Colosimo and Patrick Gerhardt, with Irish defender Steven Gray and youngster David Vrankovic stepping in.
Despite such inexperience at the back, Aloisi felt the entire team must accept responsibility for the result rather than the inexperienced backline.
“When you do make a mistake as a team you have to come together, and that’s not just for the ones who have just come in but the ones that have been playing too,” he said.
“They know what we want to do and how we want to play but we didn’t do that at all after the first 15, 20 minutes. They dominated us in midfield also and it looked like we didn’t want the ball.
“We’ve got a game in five days time and we have to win at home now.”
Heart return home to face Newcastle Jets on Tuesday as they look to move away from the foot of the competition.
