Melbourne Victory captain Natasha Dowie called on her team to be more clinical after its 3-1 loss to Perth Glory on Sunday.
Dowie opened the scoring with a brave header at nib Stadium, but a Rachel Hill goal and Sam Kerr brace saw Perth to its win.
Victory had its opportunities, particularly in the first half, and Dowie said it needed to be more ruthless going forward.
“We’ve only got ourselves to blame and it’s a shame because the girls came out flying,” the star forward told Fox Sports.
“I actually thought we dominated the first half and had some really good chances ourselves, but football sometimes, it’s a cruel game.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to go again.
“We’ve shown lots of improvement and signs of promise, but now we’ve got to really tighten up and punish teams when we get those chances.”
Dowie’s header, which was her 13th goal in Victory colours – just one shy of the club’s all-time goalscoring record held by Caitlin Friend, had given the visitors the lead.
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But Victory’s errors proved costly as Hill and Kerr capitalised for Perth.
“I think we let ourselves down with the areas that we tried to play in,” Dowie said.
“We talked about trying to play in their half and getting at their back four and with the likes of Rachel Hill and Sam Kerr, you don’t want to be messing around with it on the edge of your own penalty area.
“Two of the goals came from that, overplaying in the wrong areas and we got punished for it.”
Victory is back at home in Round 5, hosting the Western Sydney Wanderers at Lakeside Stadium on Friday, November 24.
