Not a blame game ... Aloisi didn't have an issue with Williams. Source: News Limited
Coach John Aloisi refused to paint David Williams as Heart's derby villain, insisting the players needed to take collective responsibility for the loss.
Heart looked set to launch a final raid on goal with Michael Marrone overlapping to create a two-versus-one play with a minute left on referee Alan Milliner's watch.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 27 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
| 3 | Victory | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 20 |
| 4 | Western Sydney | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| 5 | Perth | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 17 |
| 6 | Newcastle | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | -7 | 16 |
| 7 | Wellington | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 13 |
| 8 | Heart | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 12 |
| 9 | Brisbane | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | -1 | 11 |
| 10 | Sydney | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | -12 | 10 |
But Williams - threatening all evening on either flank - turned the ball over to Melbourne Victory left back Adama Traore to relinquish the game's final goalscoring chance.
And with a clinical two-pass, end-to-end move, Archie Thompson netted the winner just seconds later.
Relive the frantic Melbourne derby in our Match Centre
To illustrate the fine line in soccer, Williams could've been the hero himself, but his exquisitely struck volley - ironically from Traore's unconvincing clearance - was tipped away by Victory keeper Nathan Coe.
"I thought David Williams had a good game," Aloisi said.
"He gave the ball away, yep, a bad mistake, but the amount of good work he did (outweighed that).
"And if that volley went in that would've been one of the goals of the year and it shows he's confident, and we need him confident.
"The first half their right back couldn't deal with him. The pace he showed was the David Williams we know and we want.
"The second half, again, they couldn't deal with him. He was causing them all sorts of problems."
Aloisi said Heart left themselves susceptible to a counter attack in search of the winning goal.
"We lost the ball in a bad area. It's something that hurts a bit because we do work on when we do go forward we have to make sure we're still organised at the back," he said.
"And you could see it happening a bit. If we did lose the ball they could catch us and that's what happened."
Irish defender Steven Gray and teenage defender David Vrankovic will replace suspended pair Patrick Gerhardt and Simon Colosimo for Thursday's trip to Wellington.
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