The team slumped to its fifth loss from seven games with a 3-0 defeat to the Central Coast Mariners at McKellar Park.

The defeat was not without effort, Canberra fighting hard throughout the contest and coming agonisingly close to scoring throughout the second half before the visitors astutely put the game to bed.

It has been the story of the side's season, minor slip-ups costing the team on multiple occasions.

"It's been quite frustrating for us because we've been pretty much in every game," Popovich said.

"The ball's not falling our way apart from the one game where we hit the back of the net consistently and prevented the goals going in the other end against Brisbane.

"We're growing from it, we're getting stronger, smarter, better but it's just those little things we need to fix. It's the 1 per centers we talk about all the time that we need to improve upon."

While this year marks the first full home-and-away season for the A-League Women's competition, Popovich needs to quickly turn things around to ensure they do not lose touch with the top of the ladder.

Working in the coach's favour is the fact they have two games in hand compared to many rivals after a disjointed start to the season saw multiple games postponed.

It's an opportunity to pick up points and close the gap with the top four, but also poses a challenge as United faces a busy new year with multiple matches in quick succession.

The players will take a break over Christmas before assembling on Wednesday to prepare for next Saturday's clash with Western United at McKellar Park.

Popovich is confident a few days off will do his side the world of good as they attempt to turn their season around.

"The good thing is we go away now and we have time with our families for three days over the Christmas break and then straight back into training in preparation for our next match against Western United at home," he said.

"It doesn't get any easier for us, it's just the reality when you're down things don't tend to go your way. You need to build from that and you need to grow from that, you need your leaders to step up. For us, it'll be more of the same in training and just keep pushing to get to what we know we're capable of."

There was plenty of energy early in the contest as the teams faced off for the first time since 2009, with the Mariners returning to the A-League Women's competition this season.

The opening 20 minutes were open and end-to-end as each side attempted to assert its authority on the match.

Canberra United was full of energy early in the contest as the team's strikers made a number of surging runs towards the Mariners' goal.

Vesna Milivojevic, Sasha Grove and Michelle Heyman each found space in the attacking quarter, however, the visitors' defence was up to the task.

Central Coast had a number of scoring opportunities of its own, each side quickly transitioning from attack into defence.

Bianca Galic came within inches of putting the Mariners on top, the ball cannoning into the crossbar 18 minutes into the contest.

From there, the visitors slowly claimed the upper-hand and started to look more threatening with their attacking opportunities.

The pressure eventually turned into points, Chinese import Wurigumula putting her side up 1-0 with a 29^th-minute strike.

Central Coast continued to pepper the United goal throughout the final 15 minutes of the first half and they finished the period with six shots to Canberra's three.

Perhaps most concerning for Popovich, all three of his side's first-half shots were taken outside the penalty box.

Canberra did, however, build some pressure in injury time, but the Mariners held firm and took a 1-0 lead into the break.

The momentum generated throughout this period carried over to the second half, Popovich's side peppering their opponents' goal during the first 20 minutes.

The hosts thought they had won a penalty when Sofia Christopherson was brought down in a hard tackle in the 58^th minute, however, the referee thought otherwise and ruled play on.

The opportunities did not dry up, with Heyman and Milivojevic threatening inside the box but they were unable to put the ball in the back of the net.

Ultimately, the Mariners made their opponents pay, Wurigumula adding a second to make it 2-0 after 69 minutes.

It was 3-0 just five minutes later, Jazmin Wardlow finishing off a counter-attack after a United attacking turnover.

CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 3 (Wurigumula 29m, 69m; Jazmin Wardlow 74m) bt CANBERRA UNITED 0. Crowd: 1285 at McKellar Park on Saturday.