Canberra United coach Elisabeth Migchelsen has implored her team to be ruthless and aggressive to chase W-League success, declaring Adelaide had more ''will to win'' on Sunday as it beat Canberra for the first time in the competition's history.
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Woeful errors and ''going through the motions'' sent Canberra crashing to a loss in its first match of the year, slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Burton Park.
It was the first time perennial struggler Adelaide had beaten championship contender Canberra since the competition started six years ago.
Canberra has had just two training sessions in the past two weeks and star goalkeeper Lydia Williams admitted the team wasn't ready for the ambush.
''They executed their game plan and we weren't prepared for it … and we paid,'' Williams said.
''It was kind of like we were going through the motions and we weren't even switched on.''
Canberra was hoping to start the year with a victory to continue its impressive season.
It was only Canberra's second loss of the campaign and with six games remaining, there's no need to panic. But the disastrous start to Sunday's clash was far from ideal as Adelaide capitalised on Canberra's mistakes and jumped to an early lead.
Adelaide's Lisa-Marie Woods scored the opener after just nine minutes.
Three minutes later Canberra defender Sally Rojahn misjudged a back-pass to Williams and Racheal Quigley was quick to pounce on the mistake.
Quigley tangled with Williams and earned a penalty shot while Williams was given an yellow card for the incident.
Quigley converted and from there Canberra couldn't get back in the match despite going on the attack in the second half.
Migchelsen said her team had no excuses for a poor performance, lamenting errors and a lack of aggression as the main reasons for Canberra's downfall.
Canberra's two losses this season both followed two weeks off, the first with back-to-back competition byes and the second because of Christmas.
''We were poor in defence, we weren't aggressive enough or sharp enough and our defence organisation wasn't good enough,'' Migchelsen said.
''We have a lot to work on. We'll ask the players what's wrong and how to keep them sharp and focused.
''It was our own fault we lost to Adelaide. Losing happens. It's up to the players, the focus wasn't good enough to win the game. Adelaide was more aggressive and had more will to win.''
Canberra will regroup to play against Melbourne Victory in Melbourne on Sunday before returning to the capital for four consecutive home games.
ADELAIDE UNITED 2 (Lisa-Marie Woods 9m, Racheal Quigley 13m pen) beat CANBERRA UNITED 0 at Burton Park.
