Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou has refused to criticise fans treated to champagne soccer for the past two years for booing his players during Friday night's 2-1 A-League loss to Melbourne Heart.
Brisbane fans have not experienced a loss at Lang Park since January 2010.
Yet some of them turned on the players on Friday night, booing the team from the field after it trailed Heart 2-0 at half-time.
"I can feel the bandwagon getting lighter for sure," said Postecoglou when asked about the crowd's reaction.
"They'll jump off as quickly as they jump on.
"It's up to us to do what we do and get them back on the wagon again.
"We strive to be the best and if you want to be the best people will judge you harshly when you fall short of those standards.
"You've got to cop it on the chin and move on."
Brisbane will do that next week when it heads to Dunedin to play Wellington Phoenix, again without classy German organiser Thomas Broich.
After going 36 games unbeaten, Brisbane has lost its last two games without Broich (heel), but Postecoglou refused to concede his absence was a major factor.
"No, not really," he said.
"I thought in the second half we played like we usually do."
Heart goalkeeper Clint Bolton was one player happy Broich was not setting up the Roar's attack.
"No doubt he makes a difference, he's a class act, he'd make a difference to any team," said Bolton.
Postecoglou was not over-critical of his players, saying the way they played going forward left them susceptible to counter attacks.
The Heart did that extremely well in the first half to lead the defending champions 2-0.
"Little things we're good at we're not so good at right now and you pay the price for that," he said.
There's no doubt Brisbane's first home loss since January 2010 and its second straight after going a record 36 weeks without a defeat has exposed a few cracks in the defending champions.
And the Roar have a testing period ahead of them, with the game against the Phoenix to be followed by a grand final re-match with Central Coast Mariners on Saturday.
Postecoglou was careful not to make any bold statements with his side suddenly facing three straight losses.
"I always have to be careful what I say but we weren't good by our standards because we've set pretty high standards," he said.
"That's what we want to be measured against so there's no point in us making excuses.
"We shot ourselves in the first half and they (Heart) deserve credit for taking their chances."
AAP
Tags: a-league, soccer, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia, melbourne-3000, vic First posted December 10, 2011 14:46:59
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