Ballarat City slumped to its fifth loss of the season, with just one win next to its name. Although the primary concern for coach Danny Gnjidic is the unacceptable trends evolving.
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Despite scoring the opening goal, City lost 4-1 to Moreland City following a deplorable final 15 minutes which leaked three goals on Sunday.
The frustration from Gnjidic is evident.
Gnjidic, in his first season at Ballarat City, said the side was doing a number of things right, but the “basic” errors in the back-half that are leading to “cheap” and “soft” goals were something that he could no longer put up with.
The critical turnovers in the defensive half and sloppy exits that are occurring in the City back-half has led Gnjidic to put his defenders on notice.
The club has been attending to the problem for many weeks and if results do not change, the team line-up may have to.
“It’s frustrating at the moment,” Gnjidic said.
“Players are still making errors that players at this level shouldn’t be making. They are really basic and elementary type errors in the back-half of the field. We’re giving goals away that are state two (league), state three type defending – without being disrespectful to that level.
“There may have to be some personnel changes, because if the same people are making the same mistakes then we can’t keep accepting that.
“We keep getting ourselves into really good positions in games...and then give away really cheap goals and put ourselves into a position where confidence is effected and it seems to flow-on from there.”
Ballarat City conceded late goals at the 78, 84 and 94-minute mark in yet another lapse that is becoming all too frequent.
Gnjidic said the side, while it could improve its finishing in front of goal, was creating a lot of gettable opportunities, but the back-half errors had to be attended to.
“In any game where we’ve conceded numerous goals, we’ve conceded them in bunches.
“If we keep giving goals away the way we do, it’s going to be the story all season long unless we improve that side of our game.
“This isn’t about the game plan, these are the basics.
“We’re not doing the simple things well enough or often enough and we’re getting punished for them.”
In a further blow to Ballarat, key player Pat Karras went down in the first 20 minutes with a knee injury.
Gnjidic did not think the injury was of a serious nature, but Karras would have scans on Tuesday, however it looks likely he would miss at least a couple of weeks.
