Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi condemned his side for giving up as Adelaide United logged their best start to an A-League season with a win on Saturday. Aloisi was furious that the Heart ''stopped playing'' after falling behind at Hindmarsh Stadium.


''It's no point dwelling on what we have achieved so far, it's what we have still got to achieve,'' Adelaide coach John Kosmina said. ''It's a long way to go to achieve what I think they're capable of achieving as individuals and as a group.''

In contrast, a fuming Aloisi criticised his side's mental weakness. After a solid start, Adelaide's Jeronimo Nuemann was gifted the match winner by a basic blunder from defender Simon Colosimo, who inexplicably passed to the Reds when under little pressure.

Neumann's shot deflected off Colosimo into the net and the Argentine was initially awarded the goal, only for referees to decree it an own goal after the match.

''It's a disappointing loss because we gave them the game,'' Aloisi said. ''After they scored the goal, we stopped playing - we stopped moving, stopped competing, and that is the thing I'm disappointed about.

''You can go a goal down but you can't stop playing. We made that mistake and then it was all over. It's not physical, it was more mental, it has to be.

''What I mean by stop playing is going for the ball, wanting the ball … we just didn't do that at all after it was 1-0 and then you could see even on goalkicks we weren't even competing.''
