Frustration.

After a couple of defeats against Canberra and Newcastle, two of this seasons favourites for the title, last weekend saw us travel to Perth for a game we genuinely felt we could win.

The opening moments of the game only served to support that feeling. Our out of possession pressing was causing the Perth backline problems, we were stealing ball in their defensive third of the field and in only the second minute Rachael Quigley opened the scoring with an athletic overhead kick (make sure you watch it) after some good work from Marijana Rajcic on the right.

At this point it looked like Adelaide could run away with the game and we probably should have to be honest. Unfortunately only 4 minutes after taking the lead, a tough refereeing call led to a Perth free-kick on the edge of the area. Despite blocking the initial shot, the ball could not be fully cleared and Erika Elze was able to bundle the ball over the line to level the scores. This boosted Perth and gave them hope after the initial shock of going a goal behind.

The Lady Reds continued to create chances but lacked the real desire or willingness to let fly in front of goal. "If you don't shoot, you won't score" Although we were dominating possession and territory Perth always looked dangerous on the counter attack through the pacey and hard working Emma Kete. Far too often we lacked the awareness to track her runs or pressure the ball before it got to her which cost us dearly in the 37th minute. From an attacking position, with a throw-in in the Perth defensive third, we went from having a shot on goal blocked to picking the ball out of the net. On the break, Emma Kete again drifted between two defenders and although our cover prevented her from scoring it could not prevent her finding Jukic who slotted past Kristi Harvey to give Perth an unlikely lead.

Despite the scoreline at half time we were confident of turning the game around, we put things in place to prevent us being susceptible to the Perth counter attack and looked to exploit our greater share of possession and territory more effectively in the second half. Unfortunately despite having close to 60% of the second half possession and creating over 20 on target shots we could not find a way past the impressive Mackenzie Arnold in the Perth goal.

The more we pushed forward in an attempt to get an equaliser, the more gaps that appeared for Perth to exploit but a slightly better out of possession showing in the second half also prevented Perth from adding to their score, despite a couple of close calls.

We had two, maybe three calls for penalties in this game, two where MJ was bundled over in the box and one where Georgia Macri was flattened by the keeper. I'm not sure how close the penalty calls were but I can say we have not had the rub of the green as far as decisions have gone so far; Kath Ebbs sending off which saw her miss this game, these penalty calls and even the free-kick decision against Ruth Wallace that led to Perth's equaliser could all have gone another way on a different day..

Having said that this was a game we should still have won and it is one that we sat down after and had a good talk about both in terms of our performances, our desire to win, but probably most importantly our belief that we can win! This is a new team, a new coach, a new season and the history of the previous 27 games needs to be discarded! This team is 3 games old, yes three lost games but in every game we have been competitive, we have created scoring opportunities (20+ against Perth!), we have possessed the ball and we have PLAYED FOOTBALL.

This team can and will win games as long as we believe we truly can and as long as we keep putting the effort in on and off the field. Despite being disappointed with the result, I am more than ever convinced that this group of players can be successful!