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Dec 16, 2018   |  9:27AM AET

Hopkins disappointed by Victory performance

Hopkins disappointed by Victory performance

Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins was left disappointed with his side’s performance in a 4-3 loss to Brisbane Roar on Sunday.

Victory, still top of the table by three points, suffered its first defeat of the Westfield W-League season in tough conditions at Lions Stadium.

Hopkins said his team was unhappy with its display in Brisbane despite pushing Roar until the closing stages.

“Disappointing performance – a lot of things that we’ve done well through the season, we kind of abandoned that a little bit,” he said.

“They were difficult conditions, but as a group we’re all pretty disappointed that we didn’t actually put in the performance we talked about leading into the game.

“I had a really good feeling, the players looked confident, they looked in good nick, we had a few good training sessions during the week and it kind of came out of nowhere really, that performance.

“We’re going to have to sit down and have a chat about it as a group in the next couple of days.

“The good thing is the next game comes quite quickly so we can jump straight back into another game and put it right in Adelaide on Friday.”

Christine Nairn, Natasha Dowie and Emily Gielnik were on the scoresheet for Victory, which fought until the end and almost secured a draw.

Goals from Allira Toby and Yuki Nagasato gave Roar the upper-hand either side of own goals by Casey Dumont and Dowie.

Hopkins said Victory’s build-up play was below-par, although he praised his side for continuing to fight as Brisbane was reduced to 10 late when Katrina Gorry saw red.

“I think we kind of went back to being a bit too direct and leaving Tash and players in forward areas a little bit too isolated,” he said.

“The way we’ve played this season is we’ve built up play from the back and then we’ve allowed players time to get forward and support.

“Today, it was all a little bit too hurried and often we had players isolated in forward positions against a good defensive team. That was most probably the most disappointing thing.

“But on the flip side of that, I was proud of the way the players never gave up so they kept fighting, kept battling and it’s something you saw us do, come back into it but unfortunately it was in fits and starts and mainly after we’d just conceded a goal as well. That’s one positive to take out of the game, but as a group we’re all pretty disappointed.”

Victory has a short turnaround before a trip to Adelaide United on Friday.