Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says he had to remind himself “to smile” after his side barely escaped with a nine-point victory over last-placed West Coast.

Admitting the result “felt like a loss”, Nicks conceded his side were “below their best”, but still did enough to take the four points to now sit one game clear at the top of the table.

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“Walking down after the game, I found myself trying to snap out of it. I felt like we’d lost,” he said post-match.

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“But to get over the line in the end when our opponent were better than us with their energy; I thought their intensity, the pressure they brought, they beat us in that part of the game tonight.

“That’s probably why I was disappointed.

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“I’ve gotta smile – like I’ve gotta smile … Today unfortunately we didn’t bring our best – our opposition did.

“If you’re not at the level – which we weren’t – so fundamentally we fumbled, we didn’t execute by foot or hand, but we did enough just to scrap through.

“I’m not sure (our fans) would have enjoyed today much – apologies for that, but we got across the line.

“I have to remind myself on the way down – I have walked down the stairs or in the lift and had losses where you feel disappointed. It felt a little bit like that today.

“When it was time to get the game down, we got it done.”

Defender Mark Keane echoed his coach’s sentiments speaking with foxfooty.com.au post-match, but was happy to head home with the four points.

Zac Taylor and Reilly O’Brien leave the field after their win over West Coast.Source: Getty Images

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“From first quarter to last quarter, we only won it in the last five minutes

“We usually fight back and get it back on our terms, but today we couldn’t put our fingers on it and get it back on our terms.

“There’s no point saying it was a good test and then just accepting what happened. It’s unacceptable what happened today.

“We have to learn from it.

“I think (in half time Nicks) was like, ‘Don’t be waiting for it. You just have to get out into the contest. Don’t be waiting around, just get your head under’.

“Every team has to travel over here – you can’t make excuses in that sense.

“We can’t put that as an excuse.

“We’ll definitely have a good look at it and see what went wrong – at the end of the day we still won the game.”