Newcastle Jets coach Scott Miller was disappointed but remained positive about his team's performance after their heart-breaking penalty shootout loss to Perth Glory in the FFA Cup Round of 32 on Tuesday night.
At Magic Park, after scores were locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and 2-2 at the end of extra-time, new recruit Gyorgy Sandor converted the decisive penalty to hand Glory a 4-3 win in the shootout.
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"They’re [the players] disappointed at the moment, but I spoke to them about their commitment and their desire and I was very happy with the overall performance from that perspective," said Miller after his first competitive game in charge of the club.
"We wanted to win the game outright in the 90 minutes and unfortunately it went down to the line. It wasn’t to be."
New Jets signing from Western Sydney Wanderers, Mateo Poljak, felt the better team on the night didn't progress.
“My head and heart is a bit down at the moment. We wanted to win and we gave everything out there.
"I thought we performed better [than Perth] and I thought we deserved more, but football is a funny game and sometimes you don’t always get what you deserve.
"But we really looked like a team – we helped each other and showed a lot of team spirit.”
The Jets open their Hyundai A-League campaign away to Phoenix on Sunday October 11.
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