THEY created good opportunities - two early one-on-ones amongst them - but Western just couldn't find the back of the net at Proctor Park on Saturday night as they went down 2-0 to South Coast Flame.
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The loss ended Western's unbeaten start to the National Premier Leagues 4 season and coach Mark Rooke admitted his side was not at its best. But that the hosts created chances against an impressive Flame outfit was still a positive.
"It was a disappointing night in the fact we lost. We probably still weren't at our best and we had two really good chances early on," Rooke said.
"We kept coming and we kept getting opportunities, it just didn't go in, it was just one of those days. They had a couple of opportunities and stuck them away and the ones that fell to us we just didn't do well with.
"We started really well in the match, the first 15 minutes were all ours and if we score one of those early goals it's a big difference."
Western's first chance fell to Adam Scimone after some nice build-up play saw him get in behind the Flame defenders. However, visiting goalkeeper Matt White produced a finger-tip save that steered the ball just wide of the post.
Not long after Daniel Baumgartner worked his way into a one-on-one against White. Again he came up with the save.
With just over 30 minutes of the match gone a goal finally came, but it fell to Flame's Jonathan Mushaba.
"It was a weird goal," Rooke said.
"The ball came in from the right-hand side, their winger made a run. The ball was bouncing and Cameron [DeJong] failed to get a toe on it and clear it and it bounced again. The guy who ended up scoring it got a little toe on it and it bounced again and we tried to clear it again, then he was able to slot it under Jordan Bruce. It was one of those things, it kept falling to them.
"We just didn't do enough with the ball in the first half, we were very woeful after that, we just couldn't create any pressure on the opposition, which was disappointing."
For the second half Rooke made some positional adjustments and Western played with more width and built pressure on Flame.
But while Western created chances, White was solid with the gloves and the hosts were held scoreless. Flame's second goal came in the 50th minute after a good run down the left wing from Sandy Lowcock.
"We had some really good half chances throughout that period and we could have easily equalised, but we didn't. On another night we might have scored two more," Rooke said.
It was a better night for Western's under 20s as they managed a 3-2 win over the Flame.
All three of Western's goals came in the first half, Matthew Beattie bagging a brace while Bevan Foxall also found the mark.
