“It’s something we can’t allow teams to do” - Jackson

Central Coast manager Mark Jackson didn’t hold back in his assessment of his teams’ performance against Adelaide United.

“Terrible first half for us,” Jackson began.

“We made a pretty good start and had slight improvement in the second half.”

Jackson made a change heading into the second half. He switched from a back four to a back five, and it made a difference in the game.

“Adelaide were playing through us,” Jackson said.

“That impetus on switching our structure helped us take a bit more of a foothold in the game, allowed us to sure up in the middle of the pitch.

“We just needed more energy [after half-time]. We didn’t have any.”

In terms of their performance in the first half, Jackson offered his analysis. Central Coast trailed at the main break and it seemed like they would struggle to get back into the contest.

“We stayed off them, we didn’t pressure them. We just wanted that urgency.

“When you play against an opponent who has good players, under no pressure, footballers can play.”

After playing in Shanghai in the Asian Champions League on Tuesday night, Jackson conceded that could have had something to do with the sub-par first half performance.

“It was the fatigue from the players. There was varying factors and those I don’t want to go into.

“People will go and make an excuse and that’s not me and that’s not us. We know how deal with this situation. We dealt with it last year and today we fell short in the first half.

“We improved in the second half, but not enough to get us to where we want to be, but enough to get a point.

“We’ll continue to work with these players. They put their trust in us to help them, to push them and develop them.”