Haliti won't let chance slip again

Haliti admits he took a touch too much before blowing the best chance the A-League's new team had to score in its Round 1 game against Central Coast Mariners.

The glorious opportunity came eight minutes before half-time at Parramatta Stadium, but by the time Haliti fired his shot, Mariners goalkeeper Matt Ryan had come out and spread himself on the ground.

The result was a block in what turned out to be a scoreless draw. The Wanderers next face Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.

Haliti said at training on Wednesday that he had watched the incident several times on video.

Asked what he would do if he had the chance all over again, he replied: "Obviously I would have done it differently, because I would've scored,” he said.

“Usually, I do go for it the first time. It was just that in that moment I decided to go for it the way I did."

But if it was easy to score no-one would ever miss, and Haliti said his confidence had not been affected by what happened.

He said he was continuing to go through his normal processes in preparation for round two.

"Sometimes they go in, and sometimes they don't," he said.

"Unfortunately for me that day, it didn't go in, but what I can do is keep preparing well and believing in everything that I'm doing.

"We had a few good chances, including myself. That's just something we have to work on at training this week, and for the rest of the season, and try to improve on things.

"Some will go in and some won't, but the important thing is to stay positive and keep working on it."

Haliti said he had scored enough goals from similar opportunities in the past to be confident in his ability to get the job done next time.

"My role is to score goals," he said.

"I like to score goals. Since the pre-season started I've been working on getting myself into good positions, and if I keep getting into the right place at the right time, the opportunities will come.

"That was my goal from day one, to just get into position where I can be effective. If I keep doing that, the rest will look after itself."

Haliti said that while the Wanderers were happy to get something out of their first game, against last season's premiers, no-one at the club was getting carried away.

"It's only one game," he said.

"Take one game at a time. Hindmarsh is always a tough place to go, and we've got to be tuned in and turn up on the day if we want to compete.

"They (Adelaide) turned up on the day last weekend (against Newcastle) and got a good result, and that's how it works. You turn up to play, and hopefully you get a positive result."