Hume City deserved its 0-3 loss to Green Gully on Sunday in the National Premier League, according to coach Louie Acevski.
“It was very disappointing result,” he said.
“We were out-played and deserved to lose by that margin.
“They had more mature boys on the pitch and we were mentally out-muscled.”
Despite the margin, Acevski said his side did have chances to hit the scoreboard.
“We did in a few patches, here and there; we had chances to be 1-0 or even 2-0 in the first half,” he said.
“We were hoping we’d play a good game and get the three points. When you’re being out-played you have to take your chances, which we clearly didn’t.”
Acevski said his side would be boosted in coming weeks with players returning from injury, including Richie Cardozo.
City won’t have too long to dwell on the loss with a midweek match against Springvale.
“We will chat about it [the loss] during the week, but we have the midweek Dockerty Cup game before playing Ballarat in Ballarat,” he said.
“We play Springvale who are in NPL1; if we play to our capabilities we can win that game.
“It will take a physical battle, but we have a squad of 20 and we’ll have to rotate them this week.”
City sits seventh on the ladder with four wins, five losses and a draw.
In NPL 1, Whittlesea Rangers were on the receiving end of a North Geelong Warriors 4-0 rampage.
With both teams near the bottom of the ladder, it was a must-win game for both.
Rangers were unable to capitalise on their chances.
They are 12th on the ladder with two wins six losses and a draw.
This week the Rangers face Dandenong City in Dandenong.
