Victory coach Ernie Merrick has admitted that star playmaker Carlos Hernandez is having tough time in front of goals, including two glaring misses in the 0-0 draw with the Jets in Newcastle on Saturday night.
The Victory over-ran the Jets in the second half of a fixture played at a frantic pace and it was Melbourne striker Ricardinho who had the best chance to win the match when he saw his shot from 15 yards well saved by Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy in the 71st minute.
But Merrick was at a loss to explain how the usually reliable Hernandez spurned two golden chances from inside the area in the 0-0 draw.
"He hasn't had his scoring boots on for nine games now," Merrick said of Hernandez.
"He has certainly been getting opportunities. He is playing well, he is creating, he is passing the ball through to strikers and he has had his own opportunities to score but he hasn't been finishing with quality."
"He is disappointed in his own form. He told me if he had of known there was no pressure on him with the second chance he had he would have taken two touches, but he snapped at it with one touch and the ball didn't sit properly for him."
"But he is not the only one - at least we keep creating good chances and that is another clean sheet - I think that is our fifth in the last six games."
"But all we can do is work on shooting at training - the boys are banging in goals at training - we just have to transfer the training ground action to match action."
Despite the 0-0 draw Merrick said he was pleased to come away from the match with a point on the road.
"This is a tough hunting ground for us," he said. "We don't often play very well for some reason up here in Newcastle but I thought tonight we played really well."
"We created some good chances. Ricardinho had one, Carlos (Hernandez) put two regulation chances over the bar and Geoff Kellaway just put a late one just past the posts."
"So we had four great chances where as Michael Petkovic our goalkeeper, didn't have to make one save. There was strike on the crossbar early which was good shot from distance. But we really felt that we were going to win the game but we just couldn't get over the line."
"But overall it is a 30 round season and it is really important that we are still picking up points away from home and it is great that the defence isn't conceding anything - that is tree games without Kevin Muscat and we haven't conceded anything which is good for us."
The Victory coach also said it was encouraging to see some players stepping up in the absence of others and indicated that his team was headed in the right direction.
"We can start talking about the fact that we have seven players missing - we had three boys away with the Under 23s plus captain Kevin Muscat, (Grant) Brebner, Archie Thompson and Matthew Kemp," he said.
"But we've got good depth particularly in the midfield and I thought someone who stood up tonight and was very strong was Marvin Angulo. It was good to see."
"Robbie Kruse was back so hopefully we will be able to stablise the two strikers. However, Robbie is off to have an x-ray as he may have broken his finger."
Merrick also took the opportunity to throw his support behind the Jets remaining in the A-League after almost disappearing from the A-League due to financial difficulties.
"Newcastle are an integral part of the A-League. Con Constantine put his hand in his pocket for a long time to support football at an elite level in this country and it is a credit to him," Merrick said.
"It is really good that Nathan Tinkler has come in and bailed out the club because I think Newcastle is has to be in this league."
"It is always a pleasure playing against them and it was great to see a big crowd out there tonight."