Western United coach John Aloisi voiced his frustration at inconsistent refereeing following his side’s 4-2 loss to the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League on Saturday.
United led the encounter 2-0 at half time after goals to Nicolas Milanovic and Connor Pain had them in control.
A red card early in the second half to Nikolai Topor-Stanley for a dangerous tackle left United with 10 men for the rest of the game.
The Mariners pounced, scoring four second half goals to come away with the 4-2 win, leaving United win less after the first four rounds.
Aloisi said he was unsure whether they would appeal Topor-Stanley’s red card, but said a similar incident earlier in the game against Marco Tulio had gone unpunished.
“What I don’t understand is the Tulio challenge on one of our players in the first half,” he said.
“No attempt to play the ball and the studs are up and above his knee and there wasn’t even a yellow card.
“That’s where I get frustrated. We were comfortable with two-nil we were away from home and they weren’t really creating much.
“The biggest negative for me was the inconsistency from the referring… yes I have to look at myself and I have to look at my players, but I can’t understand how they can get something so different when it’s a similar challenge.”
While frustrated at the refereeing, Aloisi said his players should have been better in the second half.
Having been 2-0 up, he said they should have been able to do enough to come away with the points.
“The red card changed the game,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we accept that, we have to be more resilient with 10 men.
“Show that bit of resilience that we’ve lacked a little bit so far. It hasn’t been the best start for us.
“We have to roll up our sleeves and show character and show what we are capable of doing and we’ve got two games before the break, turn the season around.”
Aloisi said the frustration at the refereeing reflected in the way they played in the second half.
He said they have to focus on their game and make sure that they defend better and be better with the ball.
“Those individual battles that we lost, where we usually defend better or we normally do better, was unlike our players,” he said.
“We’re down to 10 men that it is going to be hard, we were two goals in front you should still be able to back ups against the wall, no problem, and show that resilience.”
Aloisi said there were no fresh injuries out of the game. James Troisi was ruled out during the week due to a calf strain.
Aloisi said they were hopeful of getting a few players back for their match with Adelaide United on Sunday.
