Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick has slammed a poor performance from his side right across the park as they were beaten by the out-of-form Perth Glory on Sunday evening.
Runners-up last season, Melbourne were expected to take all three points from their trip west as they came up against a Glory side that had lost nine of their last 10 matches and had only scored two goals in that period.
Instead, the Victory found themselves on the back foot 13 minutes in when Robbie Fowler fired in the rebound from a saved penalty for the first of an impressive hat-trick as he helped his side to a comfortable 3-1 win.
“It was a pretty poor performance all round,” declared Merrick.
“They got a goal from the penalty kick and I don’t think they looked back after that.”
“We just couldn’t get in the game, it was one of the few games where all round we just didn’t play that well, whether it be defence, midfield or attack.”
“When you’re down like that you’ve got to have a team that fights to get back in the game and create chances.”
“I know we had a couple early on but we’ve got to create a lot more and better chances which we normally do.”
“It’s just a poor game all around.”
Merrick said he was inclined to write off the match as an aberration in a solid season so far, albeit one where the club hasn’t quite hit the heights of the past few years.
“I hope it was just an off night,” Merrick said.
“Our game is about strong defence and our midfield are able to hold possession and service the strikers.”
“We just couldn’t get our midfield going this afternoon and if you don’t get a hold of the ball in the midfield, you finish up sending long balls to the strikers and that’s not a good game for us and it certainly suits the Perth Glory team.”
“(So) a game like that, you just have to forget about and move on.”
“If it was front third stuff or a defensive error, you’d work on it, but there was just too many things that were out for us.”
Having seen his side lose three of their last four games, Merrick said they had to start rebuilding their season, starting with Thursday night’s appointment with the in-form Central Coast at Etihad Stadium.
“We’ve got a short turnaround and we play on Thursday against the Mariners, I think that will be good for us,” Merrick said.
“It’s very important to get back on track and get three points at home.”
“I still feel that we’ve got the team to do that.”
“I think we’ve got the team to get into the finals and we’ll worry about the finals when we get there.”
“But you’ve got to score goals to do that and we just haven’t been producing up front,” he said.
