Queensland Roar coach Frank Farina says his side will face an uphill battle this Hyundai A-League season if it keeps trying to play catch-up football.
Queensland Roar coach Frank Farina says his side will face an uphill battle this Hyundai A-League season if it keeps trying to play catch-up football.
For the second week in a row, the Roar fell behind at home during the first half.
But whereas the Roar was able to recover and draw 1-1 with Adelaide United a week ago, on Sunday evening Farina- men found themselves three goals down to Central Coast before eventually losing 4-2.
“You can’t continue to keep going behind. That’s been our problem,” Farina said.
“Tonight we had a bad mistake and went behind 1-0. Last week we made a pretty ordinary mistake and were 1-0 down against Adelaide.”
“We can whinge and moan and say that we are being punished for the mistakes we make, but you have to cut them out of your game – because at this level you have to expect that you will get punished.”
Farina offered words of encouragement to first-choice keeper Liam Reddy, who was left stranded at the edge of his box for both the Mariners’ first and third goals.
“Liam had a bad game – that’s life,” Farina said.
“It probably wasn’t his first and it probably wasn’t his last. But he’s been wonderful for us and everyone has a shocker at some stage.”
“And I hope that’s his shocker out of the way for the season.”
Central Coast counterpart Lawrie McKinna was delighted by his side’s first win of the new season, but might be left counting the cost of the victory.
Of his two new wide midfield signings, Adrian Caceres did not make it onto the park after injuring his back at training, while Ahmad Elrich suffered a suspected tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee inside the first 15 minutes.
The Mariners were already expected to be without Dean Heffernan for another six weeks due to complications associated with leg he broke earlier in the year.
“We’ll have to look seriously about trying to get someone in,” McKinna said.
“Who that person is and where they come from, who knows?”
McKinna praised his entire squad following the dramatic 4-2 win, but reserved special recognition for strikers Dylan Macallister and Matt Simon.
Macallister scored twice after coming on as a second-half substitute for Simon, who made it two goals for the season with a top-notch finish in the 31st minute.
The Australian under 23 representative did not get on the scoreboard in his first year at the club.
“(Simon) could not have hit a barn door last year when he was trying,” McKinna said.
“But that finish tonight – I don’t know how good it looked on TV but it was an acute finish and the big fellow has a good future ahead of him.”
