The Reds suffered their first defeat of the season at home to Perth Glory, with goals from Andy Keogh and Christopher Ikonomidis sealing a 2 – 0 victory for the away side.

The result fires Tony Popovic's men two points clear at the top of the table while the home side were left to rue what might have been.

Kurz was critical of his side's structure.

“In the first 20 minutes we had a lot of problems with our compactness. Our goal was to stay compact, to press them but our defence was not good enough.

“They turned and put pressure on our back two, back three line in this situation. It was not really good but then we came back. Then it was after 25 minutes a very close game.

“In the second half the message at half-time was to find the space in between the centre-back and the fullback and play step by step.

“Against a back four -five line you cannot with one pass switch the play. You must play step by step to open the spaces because the defence was very well from Perth.”

United were not awarded a penalty when the ball seemed to strike Shane Lowry’s arm inside the penalty area.

After consulting with VAR, referee Chris Beath deemed it was not clear enough to over-rule the original decision.

“For me it’s difficult, I respect the decision but for me it’s a penalty” the German added.

“The player is inside (the box) or on the line when he decided to give a handball, for me it’s a penalty. But it’s up to the referee, I think he was a little bit nervous because of the decision from the last weeks.

“But he had time to look five or six times but the decision was for him and he made the decision for a free-kick. I have to respect it but I have another opinion.”

Kurz was also full of praise for Glory, who moved to the top of the table following their third successive win.

“It’s good organisation,” he said. “It’s always hard to play against a back five line because they always have three or four players behind the ball. It’s very good organisation. They have a very good striker, good shape.

“After the corner they score for 1 – 0, it’s in the right position and that’s what they need. They are good shape, but I think we are also a good team but today they were better.”