Adelaide United FC has secured another three points, another clean sheet and with it regained top spot on the table following a 1-0 win over Melbourne Heart.
Adelaide United FC has secured another three points, another clean sheet and with it regained top spot on the table following a 1-0 win over Melbourne Heart.
A 58th minute goal from Jeronimo Neumann was enough to give the home side their fifth win of Season 8, the same number of victories they managed for the whole of last season.
The Reds- tally of 16 points from seven games eclipses the club-s previous best start to a season when it had 14 points at the same stage in 2005/06, a year they took out the Premier-s Plate.
But despite his team-s impressive start to the campaign, Coach John Kosmina is not about to start buying into pats on the back only this far in.
“I-m not worried about five games at the moment, we-ve got to win next week,” Kosmina said.
“There-s no point dwelling on what we-ve achieved so far, it-s what we-ve still got to achieve, so we focus more on those sorts of things. Last season was last season, you don-t even compare. We have to set new benchmarks and standards every week.”
The Reds had the better of the chances across the 90 minutes but were made to work hard for the result after taking time to find their cohesion.
“I think it was a tough game, especially the first half. The things we talked about we didn-t execute quite as well as we would have wanted to and we had a chat at half time and after that I think we were much better.”
“I think we dominated and to be honest we probably should have probably won by more than one goal, but we made things difficult for ourselves at times, we turned the ball over in silly areas,” Kosmina said.
“When we moved it like we practised we actually look like a decent team.”
The opening ten minutes was marred by two head clashes, Colosimo coming off worse for wear from friendly fire with Michael Marrone before Reds winger Fabio Ferreira and the Heart-s Nick Kalmar collided.
Melbourne Heart made the early running, captain Matt Thompson unable to trouble Eugene Galekovic as both of his early attempts flew harmlessly over the bar.
Cassio resorted to a long range shot in what was the Reds- first serious effort before a superb cross from Marcelo Carrusca found Dario Vidosic, but the Reds- number 10 could not put enough force on his header to threaten Clint Bolton.
Ferreira did manage to test Bolton in the 25th minute but his well hit volley went straight at the Heart keeper.
Carrusca was instigating the majority of any threatening Reds forays forward and in the 38th minute he constructed a fine chance for the home side as he read a lacklustre Colosimo pass in his own half.
The Argentine pounced on the mistake, creating an opening for the opportunistic Neumann to have a sight on goal but he was off balance and Bolton kept out the shot.
In the minutes before half time the Reds went close to breaking through. First, Neumann pulled the trigger early which drew a smart save from Bolton at his near post before Evan Kostopoulos did well to cut inside and rifle a shot that went just wide of the post.
The goal that had beckoned came in what was almost a case of déjà vu as Carrusca again pick pocketed a Colosimo pass, only this time it reaped a reward as Neumann unleashed a left footed shot which took a deflection off an attempted block from Colosimo to leave Bolton helpless.
The Reds went close to a second when Kostopoulos, who was having a sterling game on the right, won a free kick in a threatening position, Vidosic curling the dead ball inches wide of the post.
Melbourne pushed for an equaliser but this Reds defence is showing a new found resilience and ensured they would have another valuable three points in their keeping.
Match Details
Adelaide United FC 1 (Neumann 58-)
Melbourne Heart 0
Referee: Ben Williams
Crowd: 8,816 @ Hindmarsh Stadium
Adelaide United starting line-up: 1.Eugene Galekovic (gk) (c), 2.Osama Malik, 3.Nigel Boogaard, 5.Iain Fyfe, 6.Cassio, 8.Marcelo Carrusca (18.Fabian Barbiero 79-), 10.Dario Vidosic, 14.Cameron Watson, 21.Jeronimo Neumann (11.Bruce Djite 76-), 22.Fabio Ferreira (17.Iain Ramsay 65-), 23.Evan Kostopoulos
Substitutes not used: 30.John HALL (gk)
Yellow Cards: Nil
Red Cards: Nil
Melbourne Heart starting line-up: 1.Clint Bolton (gk), 2.Michael Marrone, 4.Simon Colosimo, 6.Patrick Gerhardt, 8.Matthew Thompson (9.Dylan Macallister 82-), 10.Josip Tadic, 11.Richard Garcia, 16.Aziz Behich, 17.Jason Hoffman, 22.Nick Kalmar, 23.Mate Dugandzic (15.David Williams 60-)
Substitutes not used: 20.Andrew Redmayne (gk), 24.Sam Mitchinson
Yellow Cards: Hoffman 12-, Thompson 55-
Red Cards: Nil
