Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna has delivered a stinging attack on his side’s lack of discipline after the Mariners crashed to their second consecutive loss and failed to secure their spot in the final series.
Melbourne put three goals past the Mariners in seven second-half minutes at Telstra Dome, lending a lop-sided look to the scoreboard in match where the visiting team were more than competitive.
Silly errors and a lack of discipline have cost his side dearly in the past two weeks, and McKinna said this was not the time of year to lose momentum.
“We were on a good run there with five or six good weeks, not conceding, scoring plenty of goals, playing good football. Coming down here’s always going to be hard but we felt like we dominated a lot of that game,” he said.
“It was seven minutes that killed us. We felt well on top and comfortable, missed a few good chances,” he said. “Within seven minutes, the game was gone. We had the game in our grasp and it was suddenly gone.”
While he was gracious about the Victory’s performance, McKinna said all three of Melbourne’s goals could have been prevented by better discipline in defence. He said Pedj Bojic’s run to track Archie Thompson for the first goal was ill-judged, while he was filthy that the Mariners’ wall allowed Carlos Hernandez’s free kick to get through.
“We get a free kick where the wall breaks. The ball went straight through the wall, that can’t happen,” he said. “The third goal, Pedj (Bojic) was sucked in too close and Archie’s went way, and he loves playing against us, because he scores.”
McKinna said that Matt Simon’s missed chance just after the hour when the scores were still level was a crucial mistake and was possibly the turning point of the game.
“It would have been a totally different result. We were dominating then. Even Nik Mrdja’s one which went across the face of goal, he has to hit the target from there,” he said.
But his biggest criticism was reserved for experienced midfielder Dean Heffernan, who was sent off late in the game for an incident in the penalty box involving Kevin Muscat.
McKinna said that Heffernan’s spot in the team after any suspension served would not be guaranteed.
“That was shocking, we were down 3-0 and there’s a couple of minutes to go and I think the altercation with Muscat. Kevin just sucked him in and Heff’s bit. It’s ridiculous, he’s probably out for two weeks. Hopefully whoever comes in next week does a good job and Heff doesn’t get back in the team, he doesn’t deserve to after ill-discipline like that,” he said.
