Last season’s wooden spooners could have hit the lead in the first half and held the reigning champions at bay for an hour until Marianna Tabain’s cross flew towards Sam Johnson who elected to duck for Bianca Henninger to collect before Jess Fishlock took advantage and knocked it home.

City found momentum and pegged in two goals (Steph Catley 74', Fishlock 77') in the space of three minutes to ice the game leaving Hopkins and his team deflated.

“The things we’ve been working on this week, staying with runners, communication, protecting the middle of the goal, we knew how they they’d be looking to score against us and we knew how we’d have to defend and we did what we anticipated but we didn’t deal with it,” Hopkins said.

“I think you could see they were starting to get a little bit frustrated, I the break came at the wrong time, I think we came in, we regrouped and they changed things a little bit.

“They’re a good side, they can adjust and adapt to things going on in the game and they did that a little bit and we need to be able to do that a little bit better instead of being a little bit too blinkered and going on the same wave.

“If you see a little bit of subtle change of the way they’re doing things then we need to change as well.”

And while Victory have a young squad, the past four games have seen them punished for errors.

Hopkins saw the chances created in the first half as a positive, particularly Tash Dowie’s third minute shot which was saved by Lydia Williams.

“If you allow them to score three times then fair enough,” he said.

“I just thought up until that first hour we were in the game, they were dominating possession but we were happy to concede a little bit of ground. We knew we’d get one or two chances, we just needed to make sure we were in the game when those chances came and unfortunately we weren’t.

“There’s a few things we need to sort out about today’s game first and there were definite positives in that first hour was good against a good side, but again there’s a few things we need to sort out within the squad before next week.”

It is likely youngster Beth Mason-Jones will start in goals this week when they lock horns with Perth Glory at Lakeside Stadium.

The second-choice goalkeeper made her debut after replacing Bianca Henninger who left the field with a knee injury in the second half.