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Western Sydney Wanderers coach Josep Gombau says a VAR-awarded red card cost his team a chance of victory against the Perth Glory on Sunday.
But the under-pressure coach says all he can do now is refocus on the upcoming two games against lowly-placed teams to try to return to the A-League's top six.
Despite playing with 10-men from the sixth-minute onwards after the Video Assistant Referee awarded the Glory a penalty and gave Keanu Baccus a red card for bringing down Joel Chianese, there was a lot to like from the Wanderers.
They did score next through a penalty from Oriol Riera and held their own through the second half. It was only a three-minute patch just before half-time where Perth scored twice that saw them set up the 3-1 win.
Western Sydney have not won since beating Brisbane Roar 2-0 on Jan. 5 and are in seventh position though they have a game in hand.
Gombau couldn't fault the effort of his team but was frustrated by the red card given to Baccus, adding there was another defender to stop Chianese too. That was further compounded when Glory keeper Liam Reddy only received a yellow card when he denied Riera from going for goal.
"We have to accept the rules but it's more about the interpretation of the penalty against us," Gombau said. "For me it might be a penalty but not a red card. Maybe a penalty and yellow was more fair and it wouldn't change the game like a penalty and red card did.
"The decision was that he [Baccus] was the last man, but he had another player there with him too. But we can't change that now, we just have to work hard and start to prepare for the next game."
The Wanderers must now prepare for matches against A-League battlers Central Coast and Wellington.
After losing in Perth to a team below them, they can't afford to lose to either low-flying rival if they hope to play finals.
"It's frustrating because we prepared for the game and after six minutes all that preparation was out for this situation. But we need to accept that and think about the next game in a week's time," Gombau said.
"We have 10 games to go and we need to be competitive to make the finals and we need to make sure we work hard to make it. These are massive games coming up. We need to get the results if we want to be in the finals."
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