Perth Glory interim coach Ian Ferguson has slammed his player's hunger after watching them go down to Sydney FC on Sunday in the club's sixth consecutive loss.
Although there were some good passages of play for the Glory in front of 8870 people - the club's smallest home crowd this season - Ferguson believed their lack of true desperation was reflected in the 3-0 scoreline.
"I didn't see any hunger today," was Ferguson's brutally direct appraisal of the game.
"I've seen Sydney wanting that game more than us, which is quite disturbing 'cause we're playing at home and I was expecting bigger and better things today."
Ferguson's mood certainly won't be helped by reviewing Sydney's goals, all of them coming through desperate acts like Terry McFlynn's sensational chase down and tackle which ultimately led to Alex Brosque scoring his team's second goal and Bruno Cazarine's 60-metre solo dash to score the third and complete his brace.
"It wasn't good enough pure and simple. Bad performance, not Perth Glory-like," Ferguson said.
"We were giving the ball away (and) we couldn't hold the ball up."
"So I take the blame, I hold my hands up. I put the team on the park and it's up to me to try and get this fixed and get the players ready for next week."
Having been in charge of the team just 12 days since taking over from former boss Dave Mitchell, Ferguson faces a huge challenge ensuring the club doesn't get stuck with a losing mentality.
"Look it's a bad habit we're in and it's one we need to try and get out of as quickly as possible," Ferguson said.
"It's six in a row we've lost, (so) hopefully we can try and turn that around."
"For the last six weeks, we go out and we train well, we get the camaraderie back, we get the good feeling back and all of a sudden we perform like that."
"I don't know if the boys are feeling low when they go out and play, we have no energy at all, we just looked flat all over the park."
"(So) there's no easy formula here, there's no magic wand. We've got to get there and work hard. Everybody's low at this moment, we've got to try and pick them up for next week," he said.
But things won't get any easier for the Glory as they take on the Mariners next weekend at the Sydney Football Stadium, as they lose skipper Jacob Burns to a one-match suspension after he was given his fifth yellow card of the season on Sunday.