THEY created chances, they showed improved transition and they defended sternly, but the Western NSW Mariners still walked off Proctor Park on Saturday night with nothing to show for their efforts.
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In what coach Mark Rooke described as the 'the most gut-wrenching' loss for his men thus far in 2019, the Mariners went down 1-0 to National Premier Leagues 3 rivals Camden.
Both teams went into the contest desperate for a positive result with just two wins apiece over the 10 previous rounds.
Rooke felt his men had done enough work to earn at least a draw, but a 68th minute goal to Camden's Mitchell Brooker handed the visitors the honours.
"It was a tightly fought match from start to finish to be honest and it could have gone either way one goal," Rooke said.
"They had a bit of brilliance in the second half from one guy. He just rolled one of our defenders inside and took an early shot. It just happened to lob the keeper and go in.
"We certainly had our chances in the match we should have done better with.
"Last kick of the match we had a handball inside the box, but the referee said he didn't see it. That's our luck at the moment, you buy your own luck and we are certainly not getting it at the moment."
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The Mariners lost Josh Ward 25 minutes into Saturday night's match with a hamstring injury - a reoccurring problem which has plagued him throughout the season.
Though missing the stability that Ward brings to the line up, the Mariners adjusted and still created chances from set pieces.
Using a new system - a variation on a four-four-two - the Mariners were more clinical in transition than they had been in recent matches.
But for the third time this season, they were unable to find the back of the net.
"It was probably, out of all the losses we've had, for me that was the most gut-wrenching one considering we'd played well, we'd had some chances and look we defended well and you come away with nothing. A draw probably would have been a fitting result," Rooke said.
"The other losses, you could see where we were falling down, you could see where we were poor and where the other teams were better. But we've certainly improved a lot and I can see that teams are sitting up and starting to take a little bit of notice of us, they know that just can't come and easily and get points off us.
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"We certainly still had time to get back in the match after they scored and the boys didn't drop their bundle they kept playing. So there's a positive, we haven't done that the last month of football.
"We are moving in the right direction, I just hope in the next few weeks we can get some results that show the work we've been doing and how hard the boys have been working."
The Mariners' next assignment is an away match against Hawkesbury on Saturday, Rooke saying: "That's another challenge, down in Hawkesbury is always a tough away game."
