Central Coast Mariners’ Josh Rose said it was right to treat match officials like players and drop them from the team when they fail to meet professional standards.

The leftback was at the receiving end of two game-changing decisions but said he wasn’t bitter about the 2-1 loss to Newcastle Jets.

“Referees are just part and parcel of the game – they’re going to make good decisions and bad decisions and at the end of the day you’ve just got to deal with it,” Rose said.

“But if a player makes those sorts of mistake you’re probably going to get dropped so maybe they should be punished the same as players. I think that would be good.

“If referees are getting assessed as well as the players then that’s a good idea.

“They should know when they step out for a game they’re being assessed on their decisions so it’s up to them - hopefully it keeps the standard high. It’s just part of being a professional.”

Rose is fortunate to be lining up against Melbourne Heart on Sunday after walking away from a scything studs-up challenge from Jets midfielder Ruben Zadkovich in the opening minute of the derby, the home side given a huge reprieve when referee Ben Williams reached for a yellow.

Later in the game Rose was part of an attacking move incorrectly ruled offside, preventing a potential goal-scoring opportunity.

Both decisions, as well as a contentious penalty awarded to Jets marquee Emile Heskey, were wrong according to Football Federation Australia director of referees Ben Wilson.

Rose felt Zadkovich should have been given his marching orders but respected Williams for apologising over the offside call.

“The referee admitted to me straight after that he had made a mistake and the linesman had made a mistake so I mean credit where it’s due,” he said.

“It’s sometimes hard for a referee to admit when he’s wrong but he definitely apologised straight away.”

The 30-year-old said he was more concerned with his own performance after the match, including some sloppy defending by the Mariners leading to a Heskey tap-in for the Jets second of the match.

“When the final whistle went, personally, I was more disappointed about my defending on the second goal than any of the referee’s decisions,” he said.

“The referee’s decisions you can’t change but maybe if I was a bit stronger in the challenge the second goal wouldn’t have happened.

“The second goal’s what really hurt us. It gave us a bit of an extra mountain to climb and we couldn’t quite get back.”

Turning his attention to Sunday’s match, Rose said the Mariners were anticipating a tough contest and would need to be “on our toes all over the park” to get the better of an energetic Heart outfit, with both sides coming off a loss.

“They’ve got two wingbacks in (Aziz) Behich and (Michael) Marrone who love to get forward and cause a lot of problems to every team,” he said.

"Then they’ve got big Dylan Macallister up front who’s very strong and holds the ball up well and two young quick boys that run off him all day. It’s going to be a hard match for us.”

Graham Arnold’s men will want to show a marked improvement in front of goals, having netted just twice in the opening three rounds.

“It’ something Arnie has pointed out – we haven’t had any trouble getting to that final third, it’s just probably the final ball we’ve been struggling with,” Rose said.

“We’ve looked at a lot of video and Arnie’s given us a few pointers on where we can improve and that, some of the runs we could be making and the balls we should be playing.

“Hopefully if we can work on it at training it will all come together.

“I think we’ve definitely got the players – if you look at our forward players they do have goals in them - it’s just a matter of getting those opportunities and being confident in front of goal.”