Wellington Phoenix captain Andrew Durante admitted Sydney were a ‘class above’ but lamented his side’s sloppiness in a heavy 4-0 loss at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
Sydney capitalised on some poor Phoenix errors as they raced to a 2-0 lead inside 14 minutes, with Alex Brosque and Adrian Mierzejewski punishing the visitors.
Milos Ninkovic pounced on another shocking defensive lapse to make it 3-0 with just over 15 minutes remaining before David Carney sealed the win with a late strike off the bench.
And Durante, who broke the Hyundai A-League’s all-time appearance record in the defeat, was clearly frustrated with his side’s charitable performance.
“Yeah, it’s extremely disappointing. The milestone aside, it was a poor performance. We gifted them three goals,” Durante told Fox Sports.
“You come here, we gifted them three goals. They didn’t even have to work hard for them.
“I think outside of that they didn’t really create too many chances in that first half.
“But we just gave them three goals to start the game.”
Four goals.
Three points.
Too good.@SydneyFC were ruthless tonight. #ALeague #PlayFootball pic.twitter.com/qO0WYlxo5s— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) February 2, 2018
While his side were far from their best, Durante acknowledged Graham Arnold’s outfit were clearly the best side in the A-League.
“They’re good. The movement, the front four it’s very difficult. Not many teams, as you’ve seen, can stop them,” Durante said.
“We tried to make our fullbacks follow the wide guys inside when they came inside and it wasn’t working.
“They’re class. They’re a class above all the teams that we’ve played and congratulations to them because they’re a very good team.”
Wellington remain five points adrift of the top six and could be as much as eight points outside the finals spots at the end of Round 19.
But Durante said Phoenix can’t dwell on the performance as they look to force their way back into contention.
“As long as there’s a chance, a mathematical chance to be in there, you’ve got to keep fighting,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of home games coming up.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to pick ourselves up.
“Train harder, work on things and try and get into the playoffs.”
👏👏👏 The all-time @ALeague games record holder. Congrats, @A_Dura22. #ALeague #PlayFootball pic.twitter.com/KUbG37EVkX
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) February 2, 2018
