Carl Veart admitted it was unacceptable to fall by the wayside in that manner after conceding the first goal on 66 minutes against Macarthur FC on Friday night.
The Reds would ship three more goals in relatively quick succession to suffer a 4-0 loss and slip to eighth on the A-League table.
Veart liked his side’s endeavour prior to the Bulls’ opening goal but bemoaned how they appeared to drop their heads.
“It’s always disappointing to lose,” he told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“I thought the effort the boys put in was very good. The first goal sort of just took the wind out of us and then we’ve to be a lot better defensively.”
The Adelaide boss was left frustrated with the team’s defensive application and said they must swiftly address their deficiencies in training this week.
“The effort was good and the first goal sort of killed us,” he said.
“But then to go ahead and concede another three that’s not good enough for a professional team.
“We need to be a lot more resilient than what we were it’s far too easy that last 10, 15 minutes.
“… It was just some basic mistakes that we made in our defensive positioning so we need to go back to the training ground and work a lot more on that.”
The Reds tackle an in-form Central Coast Mariners at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
Veart was confident their fortunes will change, provided they can improve defensively and become a more resilient outfit.
“We’ve already shown this year when we play good football that we’re a very good side,” Veart insisted.
“We can beat any side on our day but we just need to be more focused and more switched on for the whole 90 minutes.
“There’s no good playing for 60 minutes, the game goes for 90 minutes, and we need to make sure we stay in the game.
“… It’s happened a couple of times now where we concede far too many goals after we concede one, we can’t just give away another two or three.
“It’s something that we need to improve.”
Next match details:
Game date: Friday, 19 February vs Central Coast Mariners
A-League 2020/21 – Matchweek 09
Kick-off 6.35pm ACDT
Gates open 5.35pm ACDT
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Stream: Kayo Sports, MyFootball Live App
