Matt McKay's 89th minute goal was a knife in my heart.  I actually felt physical pain when it happened and was numb with grief on the long drive home.

Watching Matchday Saturday later just made me feel worse : how could anybody be laughing and enjoying football ?  Like Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch, I just wanted to go somewhere for a while and be on my own.

So I sat on the couch with my cat until 2am watching the match again, just to try to see where it all went wrong.  The first 20 minutes were just baffling : although we desperately needed a win, we seemed to be hanging back like there was nothing at stake.  Two beautiful goals from Brisbane was the inevitable result.

But some important things are missed by television cameras, whether by accident or design, who can say? Not long after Van Dijk's goal, an injury to a Roar player resulted in an impromptu drinks break whereupon a heated argument broke out between Travis and Boogs close to the Mariners bench.  Was it about marking? Distribution?  Had Boogs taken the last raspberry Powerade?  Who knows.

A team that's lost three matches in a row and just conceded two early goals is never going to be a happy one, but public disharmony is very unpleasant for fans to watch.  All the more so because Travis seemed to have another go at Boogs when he scored his goal some minutes later.  "I told you so!" 

Strangely, it was a similar defensive error from Moore that gave Matt Simon a goal in our 3-0 win over Roar earlier this season.  And from that moment on we seemed to fire up and get back in the game.  We fought back so hard in the second half, even showing signs of that comeback spirit we used to display on a regular basis, which only made losing all the more painful.

Hard as it is, we need to face up to Sydney with renewed motivation, otherwise we risk becoming roadkill as other teams speed past us up the ladder. The Jets have just become the first team to win four in a row, let's not become the first team to do the opposite.  

Adding insult to injury for the Mariners right now is the drop in crowd numbers.  Although they make a lot of noise, The Marinators have dwindled alarmingly and now seem to consist of only around 40 fans.  They were almost outnumbered by visiting Roar supporters on Saturday, which was incredibly embarrassing. 

I find it hard to believe that a few losses in a row are the cause, but something drastic needs to be done to win back the crowds.  The time for subtle marketing is over.  Free beer, Marvin pole-dancing or perhaps an enormous sign outside Bluetongue asking "Where the bloody hell are you ?" could be the answer.

Another attraction could be the Mariners' decision to (once again) show replays of contentious referee decisions on the big screen last Saturday. 

Although this was stopped in the second half, there were some particularly questionable first half decisions that were replayed on the screen, causing massive anger from both the crowd and McKinna.  One clear corner not awarded to the Mariners close to half-time caused a near riot and several free kicks awarded against Travis added further to his irritation.  Could they have affected the outcome of the match ?  When the result was this close, you bet they could.

So what's going on? Are the Mariners planning to disregard FIFA rulings preventing the replay of potentially contentious decisions, in the hope that it fires up the punters? Will other clubs follow suit in an attempt to recapture dwindling crowds?

Personally, I think it's a winner.  Maybe the FFA needs to forget the World Cup bid for a split second and look at regenerating public interest in the A-League.  There's nothing like a few moments of controversy to crank up the crowd fervour and nothing quite as satisfying as proving a referee was wrong and shouting about it from the stands. 

Either that, or perhaps Viduka might moor his yacht in Brisbane Water and drop in for a few guest spots.  Gotta be better than hanging around the coast of Croatia getting a suntan and playing FIFA 10.