SYDNEY, March 25 (Reuters) - Melbourne Victory coach Grant Brebner said he would not resign despite the four-times A-League champions slumping to a seventh defeat in eight matches with a 4-1 loss to Wellington Phoenix on Wednesday.
The defeat in Wollongong left the club rooted to the bottom of the A-League table with two wins and a draw from 12 matches but the Scot said he would not be quitting.
"Look, it's not the type of person I am," the former Victory midfielder, who was appointed coach on a permanent basis last August, told Fox Sports TV.
"I totally understand the position we're in. I understand the expectations of this football club to win games and win trophies.
"But I do believe we can get ourselves out of this. I do believe the players that will come back into this team will make us better.
"In the here and now, it's tough, but ... I'm still giving this job 100%. If I look in the players eyes and see they're not there, then that's a telling story. But at the moment they're still desperate to perform."
Local media reports on Thursday said the Victory board had already been in touch with former Socceroo Tony Popovic, who led Western Sydney Wanderers to the Asian Champions League title and three domestic championship finals.
Brebner bemoaned individual errors in the loss to Phoenix and said he would address the matter before Saturday's match against league leaders Central Coast Mariners in Gosford.
"I think I can hurt them when they're down, but there's a truth to that," he said in his post-match news conference.
"It's not a case of just sticking the knife in and twisting it. They're professional footballers and we have to talk about the uncomfortableness of certain instances in that game and the individual mistakes ..."