Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi says his side won't give up on sneaking into the top six and playing finals for the second consecutive season.
Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi says his side won't give up on sneaking into the top six and playing finals for the second consecutive season.
Heart made it hard for themselves by falling to a 2-0 defeat against Adelaide United at home on Monday night and now need to pick up at least two wins from their remaining three matches if they are to have any chance of appearing in the Hyundai A-League post-season.
Aloisi's side sit three points behind sixth-placed Newcastle, but tough matches against Western Sydney, Brisbane and Central Coast in the final three rounds makes it a tall order for Heart to finish in the top six.
"We have made it hard for ourselves, but we will move on to the next game and try and pick the boys up and try and beat Western Sydney," Aloisi said after the loss to Adelaide.
"We had been winning at home on a consistent basis, but we had made it hard on ourselves by not picking up points away from home.
"Now we have to turn that around. Win at home next week and then pick up points away from home.
"We won't give up. It is still close and we have still got a chance of making the six so we have just got to do what we can and pick up the points."
Aloisi was disappointed with his side's performance against Adelaide, although he made note of the opening 20 minutes of the contest when Heart had several chances to score.
Nick Kalmar was thwarted by veteran Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic on at least three occasions, while Croatian striker Josip Tadic will think he should have done better with a header in the 10th minute.
"Eugene kept them in the game and we should have punished them," Aloisi said.
"Three great chances we had … they weren't really causing us problems.
"They got the penalty and they were better than us after that.
"We really struggled, they grew in confidence and in the second half they were a lot better than us."
Aloisi defended his decision to leave Patrick Gerhardt and Jonatan Germano out of his match-day squad against Adelaide, indicating the duo were omitted to 'freshen things up'.
The Heart boss said both players would be in line for a recall to tackle the Wanderers at home on Saturday, but he won't make a call on selection until later in the week.
"Normally when a team doesn't win you make changes," Aloisi said.
"We have got a full squad to pick from the boys that don't perform we can put someone else in."