Missed opportunities have haunted Melbourne Victory this season and so it was in Friday night’s 3-2 derby loss to the Heart at AAMI Park.
Missed opportunities have haunted Melbourne Victory this season and so it was in Friday night’s 3-2 derby loss to the Heart at AAMI Park.
Both coaches agreed the Victory should have been at least two goals to the good, rather than one after dominating the opening half hour which included a penalty miss from Carlos Hernandez.
The contest turned when John van ‘t Schip reverted to his regular four-three-three set up after starting with an experimental three-four-three.
From that point on the Heart wrested the momentum, took their chances and claimed the three points to move up to second on the Hyundai A-League table.
“We created enough chances in the first 20, 25 minutes to be at least two-up,” said Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic.
“It’s disappointing, but that’s football – you take your chances, you win – you don’t, you lose.”
“They weren’t really in it before that.”
“We made a couple of mistakes, they hit us on the counter-attack and we copped two goals.”
“It’s disappointing because we’ve got enough experienced players not to do that.”
Victory captain Adrian Leijer said there were no excuses for the result.
“We weren’t good enough on the day,” said Leijer.
“It’s disappointing for the fans more than anything because we know how much it means to them.”
“We’re very gutted, but all we can do is get back out there and try to get back to winning ways as soon as we can.”
Durakovic complimented Hernandez and Thompson for their hard work and said he thought Harry Kewell had a “pretty good game”.
The coach claimed not to know what was behind Hernandez’s angry remonstrations with Heart defender and former Victory teammate Aziz Behich after the final whistle.
“It was just a bit of tongue in cheek,” said Durakovic. “Something must have happened.”
While he had had no complaints about the referee’s decision to give Heart keeper Clint Bolton a yellow card for a foul on Thompson in the fifth minute, Durakovic said his side was on the wrong end of several tight calls including an appeal for hand ball in the lead-up to Alex Terra’s decisive third goal.
“Everyone was saying it was a hand ball, but that’s football,” said Durakovic.
“Their second goal apparently was offside as well.”
Durakovic said he was confident his side would rebound against Brisbane Roar in their New Year’s Eve fixture at Suncorp Stadium.
