Mirza Muratovic's 61st-minute winner on Sunday drove the dagger through a dour United performance and compounded what has been a tough stretch for the green and black and left them four points back of the finals places. 

Following their 2-0 triumph over Brisbane in round 10, United have only won – and perhaps only looked good in – a single game; their 3-0 victory over bottom-placed Central Coast Mariners.

After a promising start to life in which their talented – but ageing – squad brought both a fresh style of football to the A-League on their way to securing a number of impressive early results, it's a disappointing letdown. 

The grind of the campaign, short as it may be in comparison to other competitions around the world, seems to be taking its toll.

Since their December 13 win over Roar, Ersan Gülüm, Scott McDonald, Connor Chapman, and assistant coach John Hutchinson have all left the club, while regulars Alessandro Diamanti, Andrew Durante, Brendan Hamill, Aaron Calver, Panagiotis Kone, and Dario Jertec have all battled various degrees of injury.

Tomoki Imai, Tomislav Uskok, and Oskar Dillon were all added during the January transfer window, while youngsters such as Dylan Pierias, Joshua Cavallo and Thiel Iradukunda were given greater roles.

“We’re a different team than we were at the start of the season, that goes without saying,” Rudan said post Roar defeat.

“But that’s not to say we shouldn’t be competitive, especially against a team that’s fighting for that finals position.”

Of course, guiding an expansion side was never going to be an easy proposition.

On short notice - United received a licence in December 2018 and Rudan officially came aboard in May 2019 - an identity needs to be formed, a vision created, game style and tactics implemented, cohesion found, and chemistry amongst a disparate group of newly signed players built 

Such circumstances are going to come with some form of trial and error, especially when a number of the players on the books arrived at the club prior to the coach entrusted with overseeing their exploits.

But even Rudan didn’t expect it to be quite this difficult.

“It’s been a lot harder,” he said. “I’ve spoken to coaches who have been part of new organisations and start-up clubs, you didn’t kind of envision it would be this hard.

“There’s been a lot of changes, and there’s been a lot of changes at the top as well - structurally. With that comes new ideas and different ways of doing things, we’ve had to readjust.

“It’s not just on the park. I see my job here at this football club being more holistic – a lot of long days and long nights. But I’ve bought into this and I won’t be making any excuses.

“It’s a fantastic club, great people behind the scenes that are working hard.

“I’m in it for the long haul – or as long as they want me – I’m going to be here. We work extremely hard at the club, behind the scenes nobody sees the work that goes in.

Multiplying the difficulties for Rudan has been the ground-hopping he and his squad have been forced into in their first season in the A-League.

Sunday’s contest in front of 2,973 fans at Mars Stadium was the third different venue his squad had used in their previous three “home” fixtures. Their round 16 loss to Adelaide United was played at Whitten Oval and their round 15 win over Central Coast Mariners was at Kardinia Park.

Though such outreach efforts – especially during the wait for the club’s promised purpose-built stadium in Tarneit – are to be expected for a club that’s bombastically declared that its goal was to unite everyone west of the Westgate, such circumstances aren’t exactly conducive to fostering continuity and a home ground advantage.

Of the three home games remaining on their slate, one will be at Kardinia Park and the other two will be back in Ballarat. 

“It was almost like an away game today,” said Rudan.

“Because we, as a squad, came in yesterday and trained at Ballarat and stayed overnight. That in and of itself, you almost treat it as an away game. It is what it is.

“We wanted to give the players the best way to prepare for this game because last game we played against Wellington, the players drove in an hour and a half, two hours and felt a bit tired getting out of their cars and playing the game.

“We got some feedback from the players and we all thought that this was something they wanted to do. And we’re thankful for the club for giving us the opportunity because there’s a lot of costs involved in that as well.

“We all came in, had lunch and trained and stayed overnight, had breakfast and went for our walk. Normal routine for an away game.”

Nonetheless, though things aren't all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows for United, the season is not over yet. 

The club still has nine games to overturn the four-point gap that exists between themselves and sixth-placed Roar, and they will be attempting to do so in a league where, apart from Sydney FC, every side has gone through patches of form where they have eminently beatable. 

“I think anyone can still make the top six,” Rudan said. “The bottom teams, the way they’re’ playing, probably not getting results, but anyone can go on a run of games in this competition.

“Brisbane came from nowhere with a run of games and now find themselves in the top six.

“[United’s form] makes it a little bit harder, but at the same time, it makes it more rewarding. The bigger the challenge the more rewarding it becomes.”