Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins lamented his team’s display in its 3-1 Westfield W-League loss to the Newcastle Jets on Friday.
Kyra Cooney-Cross, 15, scored her first goal but efforts from Tori Huster and Hannah Brewer and a Katie Stengel penalty saw the Jets to their win at AAMI Park.
Hopkins said his team – left in seventh on the table – failed to reach the levels it wanted.
“Some games when your season is almost on the line and we really needed three points today to keep us in touch,” he said.
“Maybe we built it up a little bit too much for the players because we didn’t really do ourselves justice.
“Myself, the whole of the team, the whole of the squad are disappointed with the effort we put in today, especially here, when you get an opportunity to play out on AAMI Park in front of your home supporters.
“We didn’t do ourselves justice.”
The loss was a blow to Victory’s chances of reaching the finals, left five points adrift of fourth-placed Sydney FC.
But Hopkins said his team would not give up in its push for a top-four finish.
“Every game is now a cup final for us, we’ve got some tough games over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“We’ve by no means given up but we’ve made it difficult for ourselves.”
