Central Coast Mariners striker Blake Powell urged his team-mates to stay true to their pass-first principles despite giving up two cheap goals in the loss to Brisbane.
Jacob Melling and Ben Kennedy were both punished for turnovers in defence during the 2-1 defeat, Central Coast’s ninth successive match without a win.
However, goal-scorer Powell wants his team-mates to “hold their heads high” and not lose focus of the long-term plan.
“We’re still confident with our playing style. We’ll stick to that every week, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Powell told Fox Sports.
“We should be confident with the way we’re playing. Two mistakes at the back but it doesn’t matter.
“We’ve proven week-in, week-out we can play from the back.”
Mariners coach Paul Okon, who attributed Andrew Hoole’s omission from the squad to the form of positional rivals, conceded there was no was forgiving his side’s errors at the back.
“You’re going to lose a football game any day of the week if you do that,” he said.
“We weren’t at our best tonight. I think that was obvious. Giving away those goals was extremely disappointing.”
