Central Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna has lamented his side's poor performances at set-pieces in their 2-1 loss to Kawasaki Frontale.

The A-League club conceded twice from stoppages in a costly loss that makes their chances of progressing to round of 16 very difficult.

"Those two set pieces cost us two goals," said McKinna.

"We came here after a very poor performance at Central Coast and we came with a game plan to make it very hard for Kawasaki. Generally, we did a very good job.

"A free-kick, that was obviously not a free-kick, punished us. We did well to come back into the game but from a corner again, we never cleared that properly.

"We defended and frustrated Kawasaki for most of the night and we created most of the best chances. So, I'm very proud of how the team came back from the 5-0 defeat, and very disappointed we didn't get something from the game.

"It was similar to the first game. Kawasaki's defence is very solid and they played the offside trap very well. In the first half especially, the Kawasaki defence was very well organised and was hard to break down."