Soccer-No panic at winless Wanderers, says Popovic

SYDNEY, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Western Sydney Wanderers are playing well and there is no panic at the club despite being winless and bottom of the A-League after eight matches, according to coach Tony Popovic. The Asian club champions lost 1-0 to Brisbane Roar in a re-match of last year's championship final at Parramatta Stadium on Wednesday evening, Andrade Silva Henrique's fifth minute penalty proving decisive. Wanderers reached the A-League playoff final in their first two seasons of existence but have drawn three and lost five matches at the start of their third campaign to trail leaders Perth Glory by 16 points. "It's not about getting nervous. I don't like losing any game, I don't like drawing any game. If you look at it from that perspective I'm not that happy at all," Popovic, voted Asia's coach of the year last week, told reporters. "But I'm not going to sit here and lie to the players, their effort again was tremendous. They had chances, dominated a game of football but you can't lose belief when you see them perform this way in the last four games. "Are we happy with the results? No certainly not, but I can't lie to them and say 'You're playing crap and losing games'. We're playing well and we have to keep that belief." The good news for Wanderers is that champions Brisbane, who sacked manager Mike Mulvey after a start to their campaign that was almost as poor, showed that a couple of wins can turn a season around by moving into the playoff positions with Wednesday's victory. There can be little doubt that Western Sydney's triumph in the Asian Champions League proved an early-season distraction and there will be more disruption when they head to Morocco for the Club World Cup next week. "I would never say no to a world club championship no matter how results are going," Popovic said. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Ian Ransom)