Following a humbling 12-0 drubbing at the hands of South Melbourne, Preston head coach Zivko Kolevski has admitted that his team were not up to scratch.
“We were very poor despite how good South Melbourne are,” he said.
“We just let them have too much space and time.
“There was no fight, no spirit, no nothing out there today.”
The Lionesses are bottom of the league table on goal difference, still yet to gain a point four rounds into the new season.
Tiffany Eliadis was their main scourge during the game at Lakeside Stadium, scoring an incredible five goals as she ran rings around the Preston defence.
“The team was very bad defensively, we didn’t know who we were picking up,” Kolevski said.
“We had Luda (Lucrece Laverdure) and Laura [Spiranovic] running around up front and we left open spaces.
“The setup wasn’t right at the start but our problem is we cop goals consecutively like within one or two minutes and that just deflates the team even more.
“That’s something we’ll have to try and figure out going forward.”
Preston were locked in their dressing rooms for half an hour after the game as their coach revealed that had words for them following their sobering defeat.
“We just have to go back and really look at ourselves, see what we can achieve and try to do it because I know we are better than that,” he said.
“We are not a 12-0 team despite the result.”
Preston will have a break next week due to their premature departure from cup competition, so the team will have time to regroup and prepare for Round 5 in a week’s time.
“There’s a lot of spirit in the team, just at the moment confidence is low after this result,” Kolevski said.
“But I also believe that losing a coach a week before the seasons starts didn’t help us in any way whatsoever and I don’t think anybody’s mentioned that.
“I think that’s played a big part in it because the coach we had worked on a certain game plan and to leave us the way he had obviously put a big dent in the players.”
There were some encouraging words for his charges too however, as Kolevski remained defiant that his team would find its way soon.
“I said it’s a mental thing so that’s something that we’re gonna have to try and and get out of the girls,” he said.
“Week in week out, whatever we have we, we just gotta keep working.”
South Melbourne coach Bill Mihaloudis was magnanimous in victory though, claiming his opponents had the quality in their ranks and just needed to find their way.
“For a team that’s just come together last minute, it really shows,” he said.
“But there were glimpses, I saw some really nice passages of play.
“I think they’ll be fine, as the season goes on I really believe Preston will be a better team.
“It’s just a matter of getting them all to gel and play with a certain style.”