Newcastle coach Branko Culina has blasted his side’s lacklustre performance after the 1-0 home loss to the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
The Jets went into the match knowing a win would boost them into the top six teams on the Hyundai A-League but they failed to ignite in the heatwave conditions at EnergyAustralia Stadium to lose 1-0.
“It is disappointing but if you don’t play well enough you can’t expect to win games,” Culina said.
“We just have to take one week at a time. We missed a good opportunity today at home against a team that is thereabouts and we just didn’t.”
“There is no reason why Wellington should have been in a position where they wanted it more than we did.”
“From where I was sitting they were a bit quicker to the second ball they had a bit more energy and enthusiasm and to me that is disappointing.”
“If we had come off a loss the spirit might be down but we didn’t we came off a good win. We should have at least grabbed a draw when we had an open goal in the final seconds. They score from that we didn’t – that is the difference.”
Culina refused to believe the oppressively hot conditions contributed to his side’s loss and felt that if his side maintain similar performances for the rest of the season than they would be not chance of making the finals.
“The conditions were always going to be difficult which is why we said before the game we had to be smarter – but we weren’t,” he said.
“I honestly felt before today’s game if we got the three points we were up there sitting in a pretty position but now we are back among the teams battling for the wooden spoon.”
“But let’s face it, if we were going to turn this season around it should have started today. Overall as a team we were down and pretty disappointing.”
