When the final whistle blew on Sunday night, thousands of Western United fans walked out upset at the performance but Mark Rudan remained positive.
United had created the better chances all night, yet walked away with nothing from Ballarat’s Mars stadium in a 1-0 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers.
Head coach Rudan was disappointed with the result, but still left the ground with his head held high after his team’s performance.
“It was a very good performance. We did everything but score,” Rudan said.
“I thought we had the better chances. It’s just one of those games where I can’t fault the players, in another day we might have got one or two [goals].”
The only goal of the game came from an error by United’s Jerry Skotadis, leaving Jordan Mutch to slot an easy goal home for the Wanderers.
“It’s a good learning curve [for Jerry],” Rudan said.
“It was important that he kept his head up and kept looking for the ball and stayed positive.”
The Wanderers now sit third on the A-League ladder.
While there is still more than half the season left, United sit 9th on the ladder, four points out of the finals.
Western have a game against Sydney FC on Wednesday, and will need to dig deep for the match.
“We’re working ever so hard on having a winning mentality at this football club, that’s why it’s so disappointing. I’d be disappointed if they weren’t disappointed,” Rudan said.
“It’s my job (to pick them back up). That’s the first thing I did after the game, kept the messages positive, told them it was a good performance.
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Feature image credit: Ngau Kai Yan
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