The defeat was the A-League champions' fourth in a row, leaving them in second place on the table, but Postecoglou was once again steadfast in the direction the club were going.

“I understand that people don’t necessarily agree with my line of thinking but we’re going down this path,” he said.

“We’re not going to change, we’ll keep playing out from the back, we’ll keep copping goals and people will want us to change and do things differently but we won’t.

“We’ll keep doing what we’re doing, we’re not too far off the mark and we’re showing good signs, positive signs about our performances and we’ll keep improving and keep working on it.

“The areas we may be a little deficient we’ll keep working and improving but we’re not going to change and I’m not going to change.”

The Roar, who were without Thomas Broich, Matt Smith and Henrique, had trailed 2-0 at the break, before rallying only to fall short.

Postecoglou added: “I thought the important thing was that we finished off strongly. We had quite a few guys there who were running on fumes and to be honest I’m more proud of that second half performance than I was of winning the whole thing.

“For me it’s about people, at half time it would have been very easy to throw the white flag up because of everything that’s occurred.

“We’ve got quite a few injuries at the moment and there are guys who shouldn’t be out there. I couldn’t be prouder of the way they went about it second half, I’ve got no complaints at all.”

Meanwhile, victorious Mariners boss Graham Arnold was full of praise for his side who finally beat their rivals from last season's Grand Final thriller.

“It was great to see the character and attitude. They carried out the game plan to perfection in the first half, but they know they can do better. They defended the set pieces fantastically,” he said.

Arnold added: “These boys, I want to push them to another level. There’s no celebrating that they’ve won, it’s more ‘we’re disappointed with our second half. They know they can do better.”