Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi was disappointed at his side’s inability to convert their early dominance into goals as they went down 3-1 to an in-form Newcastle Jets.
Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi was disappointed at his side’s inability to convert their early dominance into goals as they went down 3-1 to an in-form Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium on Sunday.
Adam Taggart scored a brilliant hat-trick for the hosts to condemn the visitors to their fifth consecutive loss and keep them rooted to the bottom of the A-League ladder.
“Yeah, tough because we want to win and we thought we were on top in the first 15-20 minutes but we have to punish sides when we are,” Aloisi said.
“We had a good opportunity, we didn’t put it away and then we make a silly mistake that ended up costing us and they scored from it.
“We have to eliminate the errors that we’re committing and it’s not the first week that we’ve done that, we have to put that right.
“We’re disappointed as our supporters will be, I’m disappointed, the players are, we don’t want to be in this position but we’re confident that we can get out of it.”
Aloisi pointed to the Jets’ turnaround in form as an example of how quickly things can change and was adamant the Heart’s fortunes would turn around.
“Yeah of course I do, I (can) turn it around by making sure the players keep working, I keep working hard, the coaching staff, everyone at Melbourne Heart is working hard to turn this around because we’re good enough to turn it around,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s a little bit of luck but also make sure the players focus for 90 minutes, concentrate, believe in what we’re doing. They are believing, just sometimes they’re losing that concentration and making silly errors.
“When you don’t think you’re going to win all of a sudden you win and you get on a run and things change very quickly. I did mention Newcastle three weeks ago the confidence was down, they got their first win and now they’ve won three on the trot.
“You saw when they scored today their confidence grew again and Taggart scored three great goals from outside the box, so you can see that he’s confident.
“That will happen with our players, we just have to make sure it happens next week because we’ve got Adelaide United a big game at home.”
Harry Kewell is likely to return for next weekend’s clash with the Reds and Aloisi believes he will add much needed experience to the Heart’s attacking third.
“Of course, no doubt, the pressure’s not all on Harry because Harry’s one part of the team but when you’ve got the quality that Harry’s got then of course it’s going to make a difference,” he said.
“Harry’s been through situations like this, players like Harry stand up, then the others around him end up growing because they look around and they see Harry’s out here now, of course he will help but it’s not all on him.”
