BRISBANE Roar coach Mike Mulvey admits they’ve dragged themselves into a Premier’s Plate “dogfight’’ after the 1-0 loss to bottom-place Melbourne Heart.

Roar has lost consecutive games and failed to win its last three despite fielding a full-strength side at AAMI Park on Sunday night.

Western Sydney’s 2-0 win over Perth Glory on Saturday night has bridged the gap to four points, although the Wanderers commence a gruelling Asian Champions League schedule on Wednesday when they host Koreans Ulsan Hyundai.

“Mariners, Victory and Wanderers have got to do an awful lot of travelling in the next few weeks and it’s very difficult so points in the bank will count for something,’’ Mulvey said.

News_Rich_Media: Catch all the highlights from Melbourne Heart's game against the Brisbane Roar.

“So when we come at the other end of this little blip, if you want to call it that, we should be in good shape.

“But what we have done is put ourselves in a dogfight because four points (gap), they (Wanderers) will fancy it now because we’ve got to go down there at some stage.

“But there’s a lot of water under the bridge to come until the moment of reckoning.’’

Mulvey said his team struggled to move the ball with its usual verve which cost them dearly.

“It was a deadest nil-nil, get a point, go home, readdress it, get ready for next week. Unfortunately it’s not. It’s a bad loss,’’ he said.

“We didn’t have any real zest about us today, we didn’t zip the ball around fast enough in the first half.

“What we’re finding is that teams are camping quite deep and if you don’t move the ball quick enough it’s very difficult to break two banks of four down.

“You’ve got to give credit to Heart, I though they were tenacious particularly in the first half and they put us off stride a little bit.’’