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The Sky Blues appeared to have responded to last week's humiliating 7-2 loss to Central Coast in perfect fashion, before conceding three late goals to suffer another tough defeat.

“A game of football is 90 minutes, or 95 minutes as it was today, and we didn't complete the 95 minutes, they did it better than us,” Crook told Fox Sports.

He added: “Maybe we all got a bit carried away with the 7-2. For me, we got beat 7-2 but I didn't think we didn't try. I didn't think we didn't try tonight, we tried in both games but weren't good enough.”

Crook added that his side had worked hard and run out of legs in the enthralling match.

“They worked extremely hard. (Yairo) Yau was treading water. Alessandro (Del Piero), how we got through 60 minutes, he basically trained for the first time on Friday? Pascal as well. Blake Powell was also physically out on his legs," he said.

“Certainly we'd like to have kept the lead for longer, but it wasn't the way it was.”

The match-winning goal came from a corner where Andrew Naabout headed in off the back post. The Sky Blues had no player standing on the post, which left Crook frustrated.

“We (normally) have players on both posts, so Steve (Corica) is looking at that now. They are the individual jobs which need to be done better,” he said.

Next up for the Sky Blues is an intriguing Friday clash away to the struggling champions Brisbane Roar, with both sides desperate for a win.

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