Lucas Pantelis scored the only goal of the game at Sydney Football Stadium in a 1-0 triumph for Adelaide United on Saturday night and Culina was left to reflect on another night of what might have been.

It extended Sydney’s winless run to three matches while Adelaide climbed to the top of the Hyundai A-League ladder for the first time this season on goal difference.

Asked if he was worried about so many visiting teams plucking points from his side, Culina replied: “That’s an understatement.

"We’ve lost three games here 1-0 and the other one 2-1, so all four games by one goal. It’s (home) where you should be dominating teams.”

However Culina refuted any suggestion that it was becoming something of a psychological problem for his side, playing in front of their own fans. He felt it was more a matter of personnel, or a lack of.

He said: “No. I don’t think we should take anything away from Adelaide’s performance and I can’t fault our players in that they gave everything they had.

"We’re undermanned, we’re depleted. We can’t do more than what we’re doing with what we’ve got, simple as that.

“They had Nathan Burns on the bench. He’s the best player in Australia on his day. We can’t afford to do that. We had a 17-year-old kid (Nikolas Tsattalios) who didn’t train for two days.

“It is a concern. None of us are happy with what’s happening at the moment but I think you have to accept we’ve been undermanned all year.

"We just seem to be picking up injuries every week. Adam Casey and Terry McFlynn both picked up ankle injuries which could cause them to miss the next month or so. Mark Rudan picked up his fourth yellow card so there’s another suspension.”

Culina looked on enviously at the visitors’ ability to switch formations during the match and introduce such talents as Burns and Kristian Sarkies from the bench.

He said: “They snuck one and were very happy to sit back and defend and force us to make things happen.

“As I said, the players on the park are doing the best they can, it’s just we’ve too many players missing.”

Even those on the pitch are less than 100 percent and it’s showing.

Culina said: “Juninho gives everything he has but is obviously finding it difficult with the injury he has.

"Robbie Middleby hadn’t played for six weeks but we had to rush him back as we had no-one. Mark Milligan had a calf and we had to make a late decision.

"The problem is we do not have the depth or balance to be able to cover. But I know everyone is giving everything they have.”