Arthur Diles saw the positives in Melbourne Victory’s draw against Newcastle Jets.
The Friday night football clash was an entertaining Round 25 encounter, which saw the hosts take it to the Isuzu UTE A-League leaders at AAMI Park, and earn a point that puts them on the brink of securing Finals.
A first-half Charles Nduka double, nudging his 2025/26 goal tally to five, wiped out Eli Adam’s opener as Victory led going back to the rooms.
Despite chances to extend their lead during the second 45, the hosts would be stung in the 89th minute as Adams converted from the penalty spot.
Speaking during his post-match press conference, Diles reviewed the game in the wider context of back-to-back fixtures versus the competition’s top two.
“I think we deserve more out of these two games, and we got bit in the end. The performance is something I’ve got to focus on, and the performance was good for a lot of that game. So that’s a pleasing sign.
“We want to play well as well, not just pick up points, but the points in the end should correlate with a good performance. When you don’t get the three points, when you feel like you probably can, that’s disappointing, it’s hard to take, but we’ll go again.”
Diles continued his assessment of the Jets matchup, looking at the impact a more ruthless edge could have had on the outcome, and how he and his players will keep hunting for this.
“We’ve been in this position many times this year, where we can have the same discussion, where we could put teams to bed, and we haven’t. We’ve never stopped working. We don’t use that as an excuse.
“We work again, we keep going, and we get ready for next week. In the end, we’ve scored two goals at home. It should be enough to win the match, could have scored more, we didn’t, and in the end, they can say they could have had a couple more as well. It’s disappointing the draw, but we’ll get on with it, we’ll review it and get ready for next.”
Watch Diles’ full press conference below.
