Glory have won just one game so far this season, with the Telstra Dome loss leaving them rooted to the bottom of the A-League table.

“The first 30 minutes were good, but then they scored and the confidence was sucked out of us,” Mitchell said. “Melbourne then had their tails up and the second goal was a killer for us.

“When confidence is down like this, errors do happen. We have to dig deep and get some our confidence back. In certain games we haven’t been desperate enough, we haven’t defended from the front.”

Mitchell admitted the Glory hierarchy have been in discussions over the direction of the club, although he wouldn’t elaborate about his future as coach.

“The club is looking long-term and there have been discussions,” he said. “As a club, we all take responsibility (for bad results) but the buck does stop with me.

“It’s difficult to get top players to come to Perth, especially when you’re competing with Melbourne and the east coast sides. It used to be easy – there were big crowds and it was a cheap city to live in.

"But now players don’t want to come and we’re looking at the third or fourth best players at other clubs because we can’t compete for the best players.”

Ernie Merrick, Melbourne Victory’s coach, insisted Perth were tough opposition, but declared himself delighted with his team’s performance.

“There’s not much to improve on with that performance,” he said. “There was building from the back, great inter-passing and great finishes.

“I’ve said for a while that this is the strongest Victory squad yet. There’s a good mix of senior players and youngsters.”

Merrick added that Carlos Hernandez will not join up with the Costa Rica national team for its latest World Cup qualifiers due to a hamstring strain.