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Adelaide United skipper Travis Dodd admits the Reds players’ frustration is growing at plummeting from one of Asia’s finest to Australia’s worst in the space of a year.
United stayed rooted to the bottom of the A-League after a 2-0 loss to arch-rivals Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night which looks set to deliver them the wooden spoon.
It’s a far cry from their Asian Champions League (ACL) heroics of last season, in which they reached the competition’s final as well as the A-League decider.
Adelaide were far from awful against the high-flying Victory and matched it with the champions for long periods.
But in another case of luck proving scarce for those at the wrong end of the table, dubious refereeing reared its head against the Reds for the second successive match.
After having defender Iain Fyfe wrongly sent off against Perth and eventually losing the previous week, the Reds had a dodgy last-minute penalty awarded and scored against them to make the scoreline more flattering.
While Adelaide would have still lost, it added to what Dodd admitted was mounting frustration within a playing group desperate to win but unable to take a trick in the 2009-10 season.
“It’s very, very frustrating. At the end of the day, you can be dramatic and say these decisions change results and cost players contracts, but what can we do about that as players? Not much,” Dodd said.
“We have to just go out there, get on with it, and suck it up.”
Dodd said there was still plenty of enthusiasm among the players to get some momentum going into their next ACL campaign next month.
But coach Aurelio Vidmar admitted his side hadn’t been good enough despite their best efforts this season, and needed to lift markedly to make an impression on the ACL.
“We just haven’t been good enough and that’s been the season,” Vidmar said.
“We can make excuses and say the luck’s not there, the referee’s given us a raw deal. That’s just rubbish. We need to get better right across the board.”
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