PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley can feel his side closing in on the sort of form that will deliver it victory but he insists close enough isn’t good enough after a second-straight defeat.

The Power finished Saturday night’s game against West Coast strongly and with momentum; had the contest continued for another five minutes they may have just hit the lead.

Ultimately though, Port made too many errors, particularly in the first half, and were found wanting.

Five talking points: Port Adelaide v West Coast

The eight-point loss follows the club's two-point loss last week and although Hinkley believed the Power were improving he said results proved they weren’t where the needed to be.

"There were some players who did some really good stuff and there were some parts of our game tonight that we would like to see consistently," Hinkley said.

"But we're in the winning business, we've got to win – we're not here to play 'ok'.

"Clearly we're close to winning but we're not winning because we're still playing with inconsistencies in our game…we'll keep at it.

"Every time you give yourself a chance you're getting closer."

Hinkley lamented structural breakdowns that helped West Coast create a lead that was too great to overcome.

The Eagles led by as many as 37 points late in the third term but Port kicked the final four goals of the game to almost steal victory.

WATCH Ken Hinkley's full media conference

"Structurally we broke down a couple of times at crucial moments…you just can't accept an excuse like that," Hinkley said.

"That's why every play is so important, because you get to the end of games at this level and they usually end up a lot of times pretty close.

"It's a small margins game…we had a real go at it but the small margins are crucial and you’ve got to identify them early in games, not late in games."