Carl Veart was impressed with how his team responded after conceding the first goal against Melbourne Victory at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
A brace from Captain Stefan Mauk and a goal from Kusini Yengi helped overturn Jake Brimmer’s free-kick to claim a 3-1 win.
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“I think the boys have showed the last three or four weeks when they get a bit of confidence it’s amazing what it does to a younger squad,” he told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“Again tonight I thought it was going to be a difficult game with the position Victory are in.
“I thought we started well and then the goal, but the response from the playing group was excellent.
“They caused us some trouble Victory, Robbie Kruse was very dangerous tonight but other than that I thought we were fairly comfortable.”
Yengi was influential coming off the bench in the 34 minutes he was on the field.
He gave the Reds the lead for his first A-League goal after tapping in Craig Goodwin’s cross and then assisted Mauk’s second with a pin-point cross following some fancy footwork.
Veart praised the 22-year-old striker for his game-changing performance.
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“Kusini (Yengi) was excellent tonight,” he said.
“He’s learning his craft and we’ve got to keep his feet grounded. You’ve seen tonight how dangerous he can be and he has a lot of confidence in himself, he’s still got a long way to go but tonight he did exactly what we wanted him to do coming on.”
Adelaide have now climbed into second spot on the table as a result of its fourth successive win.
Following an up-and-down start to the campaign, Veart believed his young side is beginning to find more consistency in its displays.
“Winning makes you better – it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“We’ve now won four on the trot and we were inconsistent before that but now once you start winning games you breed that confidence.
“We showed tonight even though we went behind the boys kept going and in the second-half we fixed the counter-attack that Victory kept on getting in the first-half.
“We fixed that at half-time and that shut their avenue out to attack us and then we sort of I suppose just got on top and got the result.”
Next match details:
Sunday, 21 March vs Newcastle Jets
A-League 2020/21 – Matchweek 13
Kick-off 6.10pm ACDT
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Stream: Kayo Sports, MyFootball Live App
