Perth Glory midfielder Steve McGarry is putting the onus back onto the players to get the season back on track following three straight Hyundai A-League losses after the Glory made a terrific start to the 2010/11 campaign.
Perth began the season following up the hype of the arrival of Robbie Flower by beating Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix, and drawing with North Queensland Fury and Melbourne Heart over the first five weeks.
Things have quickly turned sour for the Glory, though, with losses to Gold Coast, Newcastle Jets and Adelaide, but McGarry isn't concerned and feels that the players realise they just need to work that little bit harder to get things going again this Sunday at home to the Brisbane Roar.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't think the lads have enjoyed the last few weeks especially after starting how we did. It's not good enough and I think the players have to take responsibility in that, but I don't think there's anything to worry about," McGarry said.
"We were slightly unlucky in the Adelaide game and there were a lot of positives to take out of that, and the guys are now looking forward to the Brisbane game. It's a big game and we will go all out attack to win it so hopefully we can do that."
While last Friday was a 2-0 loss to Adelaide, McGarry saw some better signs from the team after what was a lacklustre display the previous week to lose to Newcastle by the same scoreline.
"It's hard to put your finger on it. After the start we had the boys were playing well and we were hard to beat, and now as players we just have to look at ourselves for what has happened," he said.
"In the Newcastle game especially I think the players accepted that we were going to get beat and there wasn't enough fighting spirit in the team, so as players we have to look at ourselves and make us a hard team to beat again first and foremost, and work hard."
"Everyone knows now that it will be a long hard season if we continue to get beat like this. I enjoyed the first five games so hopefully we can get back on track again."
McGarry found little to fault in the Adelaide loss with the Reds getting one goal from a fluke bit of play and the other from a penalty against goalkeeper Tando Velaphi.
He just feels like it's up to midfielders like himself to now help put some goals on the board with the Glory not having scored since beating the Phoenix 2-1 back on September 5.
"We set up well, tactically we were alright and the players were under a bit of pressure away from home which is always going to happen. They scored against when we had our best spell in the match and it was a pretty good goal so was hard to defend, and then the penalty kick sucker punched it as well. We played reasonably well and all we can do is take the positives out of it," he said.
"We've got to start taking our chances again. Myself and the other midfielders have to try and help the strikers by getting on the score sheet ourselves. We are making chances still and that's not a worrying aspect. We are getting enough possession and creating chances. We can't rely on the strikers to score week in and week out. It's a team game and we need to step up as well."