Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay has the look of a man who knows his season is slipping away fast.
A third straight defeat - 4-1 to tabletoppers Melbourne City - hasn't quite ended the team's chances of hosting an A-League playoff game, but it has dealt a massive blow to that aspiration, as the regular season winds down.
Sitting fifth on the competition ladder, the Phoenix have now drifted four points behind fourth-placed Western Sydney with three fixtures to play, which means they virtually have to win out and hope their rivals stumble to the finish-line.
"We've made it a little bit more difficult for ourselves by not picking up points today," conceded Talay. "At the end of the day, it's still in our hands - we still have three games to go and nine points to play for.
"The only thing now is we have to hope the teams above us lose games and we win our games to go above them.
"Tonight was a very important game for us to try to get three points to move to closer to Western Sydney. We play them in two weeks' time... and that would have been a cracking game to go there and play, and eventually take fourth spot.
"We'll still try, we'll definitely have a go. There are still nine points up for grabs, we just have to pick ourselves up and go again."
While the defeats have undoubtedly damaged the Phoenix chances of hosting in the post-season, the nature of those losses is just as disappointing, with an 11-3 cumulative scoreline. Their 5-1 capitulation at Adelaide last month was their worst scoreline of the season, but this latest result was their second-worst.
In between, they surrendered a halftime advantage at home against bottom-of-the-table Melbourne Victory, continuing a worrying trend of letting points slip, despite leading in games.
At least this wasn't one of those.
While the Phoenix are still looking up at the playoff picture, they may now be looking over the shoulders, where seventh-placed Perth Glory are only three points adrift and can draw level this weekend.
Wellington will now chase three crucial points at home against Brisbane Roar on Sunday.
