Melbourne Victory captain Carl Valeri is refusing to panic despite the disappointment of Sunday’s shock 3-0 defeat to Wellington Phoenix at AAMI Park.
An off-colour Victory never clicked into gear as two Roly Bonevacia stunners and a late third from Shane Smeltz consigned the hosts to a second straight loss.
“We’re disappointed, you can see it in the boys faces. Especially coming into the finals because it’s important to take form into the finals,” Valeri told Fox Sports.
Bonevacia brilliance as Phoenix beat Victory
Catch up with all the action at our match centre here
“It’s a problem but we can play good football, we know that.
“We’re in a good position on the ladder. It’s not as if everything has gone out the window.
“We know we can play good football but we have to do better, there’s no doubt about that.”
Despite suffering back-to-back defeats, Victory are only a remote mathematical chance of slipping lower than second.
Valeri is adamant his teammates have not relaxed ahead of the Finals Series.
“That’s not a mentality we’d like to have and if any of the boys did have that we’d be very upset with each other because we set the standards amongst ourselves,” the former Caltex Socceroo said.
“We’ll have a good look at ourselves and get back into it.”
