Craig Goodwin believes Adelaide United’s inability to display a complete performance for the full 90 minutes against Melbourne Victory on Saturday night, ultimately cost the Reds the three points.
Highlighting the opening 30 minutes in particular, which saw United concede two goals, first through a Besart Berisha spot-kick, followed by a Gui Finkler free-kick, Goodwin has said his team’s slow start left them with “a mountain to climb” as they chased their opponents for the remaining hour of football.
Goodwin also credits United’s recent downfalls to be simple mistakes that are proving very costly, saying the Reds as a team must work to iron these errors out.
“It was disappointing to lose the game in the first half-an-hour again,” Goodwin said.
“We’re getting closer and especially the second half against Victory was very positive, but by then we’d lost the game in the first half, so we had a mountain to climb.
“This week we conceded the penalty and the free-kick, which just killed us and had us chasing the game.
“Our performances haven’t been consistently good enough and in patches we’re just making errors that are giving teams goals at important times.
“There are times when everyone makes mistakes and you can’t stand and be angry at them because everyone in the team makes them. You have to stick together and work hard for each other, backing one another up.”
In patches throughout the second half in particular, United were the more dominant side and took the game to Victory with Goodwin earning his side a penalty after being brought down by Kosta Barbarouses.
Marcelo Carrusca dispatched the resulting chance from 12 yards in the 88th minute, but United were unable to complete their comeback in the dying minutes of the match.
And with the Reds’ next game being against ninth placed Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium in Round 9, Goodwin has declared it a must win for everyone involved with the club.
“I think that the positive we can take out from it is that we came back quite strong, but it was still disappointing to come away with another loss,” he explained.
“In terms of going forward, we’re starting to score goals and create opportunities, but now it’s just about getting together defensively and putting in a complete performance.
“We want to win every game and to go on the run (without a win) that we have is really disappointing.
“Coming up against Perth (Glory), we know it’s a must win – every game is from here.
“We have the confidence within ourselves and hopefully in front of our home supporters we can notch up our first win and go on a positive run from there.
“We just have to focus on the things that we can control and continue to work hard on the training ground and try and rectify the situation that we’re in.”
Adelaide United will face Perth Glory in Round 9 of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season on Sunday, 6 December 2015 at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.00pm ACDT. To purchase tickets, click here.
