Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey is refusing to hit the panic button despite his team’s winless start to the season.
The defending champions suffered a 3-2 loss to Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Sunday to follow last week’s shock defeat to Adelaide United in the opening round.
Brisbane has now just five days to prepare for Friday night’s State of Origin clash with the in-form Sydney FC as Mulvey’s side looks to avoid a third straight defeat.
But the championship-winning coach is not concerned about losing the opening two games of their Hyundai A-League title defence and chose instead to focus on the performances delivered by his players rather than the final scorelines at such an early stage of the campaign.
“Panic is a manifestation of being ill-prepared,” a cryptic Mulvey said at his post-match media conference.
“There’s no point in panicking. Yes, we’re bottom of the table, along with Western Sydney. There you’ve got the two grand finalists from last year and one of them is in the Asian Champions League final.
“This is a tough league and anybody who thinks any different is absolutely kidding themselves. Perth are cock-a-hoop they’re top of the league at the moment, but they’ve got to go and earn every single point that they get in this league and so do we.”
Roar took the lead in the 39th minute when new Albanian striker Mensur Kurtisi scored his first goal in the A-League before Glory’s hat-trick hero Andy Keogh equalised shortly after half-time.
Henrique, who set up Kurtisi’s opener, then regained the lead for the visitors with a sizzling strike from outside the box, but Keogh again hit back with another two, including one in injury time, to steal the points for Perth.
Both Brisbane goals were impressively crafted, but Mulvey rued the fact his team failed to create more genuine chances to score.
“If I’m critical of anything it’s just that we had some soft turnovers at the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second,” Mulvey said.
“The guys have played some fantastic stuff for us, but sometimes it doesn’t come off and it hasn’t today.
“It’s a long trip home, but we ain’t going to be crying, we’re not going to be blaming anybody else other than having a look in the mirror, getting ourselves back to Brisbane and getting ready for Friday night.”
