Newcastle Jets coach Branko Culina has blasted his players after they served up a lacklustre performance against the Wellington Phoenix yesterday.

The Jets were extremely disappointing in front of a poor home crowd and missed the chance to move into the top six with the 1-0 loss.

Culina admitted his side was poor and lacked urgency which was very displeasing as even just a point would have put the with the rest of the pack.

"It is disappointing but if you don't play well enough you can't expect to win games," Culina said.

"We just have to take one week at a time. We missed a good opportunity today at home against a team that is thereabouts and we just didn't.

"There is no reason why Wellington should have been in a position where they wanted it more than we did.

"From where I was sitting they were a bit quicker to the second ball they had a bit more energy and enthusiasm and to me that is disappointing.

"If we had come off a loss the spirit might be down but we didn't we came off a good win. We should have at least grabbed a draw when we had an open goal in the final seconds. They score from that we didn't - that is the difference."

Culina held onto belief that his side could still push for finals football but only due to the fact that teams around them are not playing well themselves.

"We are only a finals team because all the teams around us are pretty s**t as well," he added.

"I honestly felt before today's game if we got the three points we were up there sitting in a pretty position but now we are back among the teams battling for the wooden spoon.

"But let's face it, if we were going to turn this season around it should have started today. Overall as a team we were down and pretty disappointing."