For the second week running Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen has lamented the Reds wasteful finishing after Melbourne Heart snatched an unlikely victory, scoring twice in the final minutes to record a 2-1 win at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.
The Reds comfortably beat North Queensland Fury 2-0 last week and Coolen admitted he was waiting for the floodgates to open and his side to pile on a third, fourth and fifth goal but they never came.
After that win the Dutchman said United would need to be more clinical in front of goal and kill off the contest if they were to be genuine title contenders, but Melbourne made them pay for squandered opportunities.
Coolen admitted he was disappointed with the loss but not the efforts of his troops, only imploring they be smarter and quicker in front of goal in the future.
“There are moments when you have to be quicker, smarter and you can score the second goal and the game is over. We didn’t (score a second goal),” he said.
“I’m not happy with the result of course. I am real disappointed with the result – there were just five minutes to go before the end of the game knowing that you had a few chances yourself to score the second one. You have to be smarter yourself to kill the game, that’s something for the future.”
“I’m not disappointed in the players of course. They did well, there were a lot of good football moments but not everything was perfect. They worked real hard so it’s not that disappointing, but more so about the result.”
United were forced to reshuffle their line up just after the half hour when Daniel Mullen had to be substituted after injuring his knee.
Adam Hughes was shifted to the heart of defence to cover for Mullen who had earned his first start to cover for the loss of Robert Cornthwaite.
Coolen confirmed that Mullen’s injury is likely to be more serious than it looked and the Olyroo could be facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines after only recently returning from an ankle injury.
“What I heard at first was that it is bad, it could be longer term,” he said.
“I just spoke with the doctor, he’s not sure but it’s better to wait until tomorrow. He could be out for weeks, maybe months with an injury like that.”
“He’s a little bit better at the moment but we’ll have to wait to tomorrow. He’ll have an MRI to find out how serious it is.”
Reds captain Travis Dodd conceded the shock loss to Melbourne means United have lost ground on league leaders Brisbane Roar.
Dodd said the Heart, who had only taken one point in their last seven games, were ultimately more desperate than the Reds.
“I think they became a lot more desperate,” he said.
“They were desperate for points and certainly put a lot of pressure on us. We as a team made a few mistakes and they punished us.”
“We knew this was a game and an opportunity for us to keep the pressure on Brisbane and make up some points there.”
