THE message FNQ Bulls coach Peter Tokesi delivered to his players in the middle of Borzi Park, Mareeba, following their 4-2 loss to Redlands City Devils on Saturday night was simple.

"I said we needed to learn from this. I pointed out it’s not good enough to work individually," Tokesi said.

"(We need) to have confidence in each other and even have confidence in the coach because I gave some instructions to players to do things and they chose to ignore it.

"What do you call it? Selective hearing? I know as a coach it happens. But they (the Devils) are a good side. I still take a lot of heart from our performance."

FNQ Bulls in action

But Tokesi would have undoubtedly preferred to take points from the Queensland State League clash as well. For most of the first half it appeared it would be the maximum three.

Neither teams’ goalkeeper was harassed in the opening 20 minutes but that changed once the Bulls discovered their groove. Passes found feet, spaces were exploited on the flanks but the home side also had the nous to penetrate through the middle when the opportunities arose.

Glenn Hurney scored first for the Bulls at the 23rd minute, drilling home a free kick David Beckham would have been proud of from just outside the box.

Better was to come. The Bulls’ front three of Joe Rusch, George Koroma and Steven Cater all looked threatening, with Rusch especially menacing when dribbling at opponents.

But it was Cater who doubled his team’s advantage not long after the restart. The 19-year-old Mareeba native scored his fourth goal of the season when he casually slotted home after a fine build-up down the left side.

For the remainder of the half the Bulls looked capable of finding a third at anytime but it was the Devils who scored next when Russell Woodruffe hit the net in the 45th minute.

Chances did not come as freely for the tiring Bulls in the second half while the Devils, growing in confidence, started finding space where there was none before.

Graham Fyfe scored for the visitors just before the hour mark to make it 2-2 before Wayne Knipe gave the Devils the lead when he beat Bulls keeper Daniel Wilesmith with a mishit cross.

The game was as good as over when Woodruffe scored his second from the penalty spot with five minutes to go.

Tokesi said the Bulls were punished for not maintaining their intensity. "It started basically five, 10 minutes before halftime when we started to stand back," he said.

"We were too deep and when we were too deep we were giving too much room for them to play the ball around.

"Once they could move the ball around, we were chasing shadows."

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