A 'soft mistake' after a good start, and Sydney were on a slippery slope

SYDNEY FC marquee player Brett Emerton admitted he couldn't believe how badly his side was beaten by Melbourne Heart last night after they appeared to dominate the opening 30 minutes at the SFS.

The Sky Blues went on to concede four times in the final 57 minutes, condemning them to their worst home loss since joining the A-League and leaving little doubt of the gulf that exists between Sydney and the competition's top few teams.

However, Emerton said the way his teammates attacked the contest in the opening stanza was that of a side hunting a victory, adding it was "without doubt" a misleading scoreline at the final whistle.

"I think anyone who watched the game will know it was a game we were well in, and if anyone could have been 2-0 up at half-time, it should have been us," he said. "It just shows what a good team they are as well. Going forward, they're very dangerous, and unfortunately for us, they exposed us a couple of times and took their opportunities. If you want to be a top team, that's what you need to do. We can learn from that as well."

Emerton put the challenge to his teammates to get back on the winners list in Wellington next Wednesday. "We need to regroup as soon as possible and get our minds on the next game," he said. "Hopefully our luck changes next week. We might play terribly and win the game."

His coach, Vitezslav Lavicka, was equally at a loss as to how Sydney found themselves on the receiving end of a 4-0 battering.

"We started the game well. In the first 30 minutes we pushed forward, created chances and played actively, but we just didn't score the goals," he said. "The first goal was a soft mistake in our defence. There was a problem with what we did tonight, and a good quality team like Melbourne Heart killed us through this. They defended very well as a team."

Heart looked to have dodged a bullet in the first half when goalkeeper Clint Bolton raced off his line and appeared to have clashed with Bruno Cazarine without touching the ball, only for referee Peter Green to wave play on. "It was a controversial moment," Lavicka said. "But it was the referee's decision. It's hard to say [if it was a penalty]."

Even Melbourne coach John van't Schip conceded his team were struggling early but praised them for getting back into the contest and then overpowering their hosts.

"If you look at the first 20 to 30 minutes, it didn't look [good]," he said. "A game is always made up of different parts, and after we struggled in the first part, we changed the formation a little from four defenders back to three. We then got more control in the midfield and scored also."

Van't Schip said it was "little things" over the course of the season that had come together to set the Heart on course for a title shot, especially the return of Bolton after he missed the opening few games of the season.

"I think we had some problems with confidence, perhaps maybe that Clint was not there. He brings some [belief] to the whole team and after the first two games, we started getting stronger as a team," he said.

"The results were maybe not there yet, but we were difficult to beat. Once we got our first win we headed on from there."

One sour note for the visitors was a groin injury to their captain, Fred. It may sideline him for two weeks.