If Dario Vidosic was hoping to make a serious early impression, he certainly did that and more in a standout display in the victory over Newcastle.
If Dario Vidosic was hoping to make a serious early impression, he certainly did that and more in a standout display in the victory over Newcastle.
The game was barely 60 seconds old when Vidosic made a ghosting run into the penalty area that the Jets defence failed to track before producing a one touch finish as he latched onto a Jeronimo Neumann cross.
“It-s always great when you score early on and it sets the tone, especially after the tough week we had,” Vidosic said after touching down back in Adelaide.
Vidosic made the difficulty of the final execution look easy and it set the tone for the rest of the 90 minutes as he sent out an ominous warning that he is determined to have a big Hyundai A-League season as he also had a hand in the Reds- second goal.
Midway through the second half, with the Jets down to ten men, the Reds- number 10 found space behind the defence again, this time putting the ball on a plate for Iain Ramsay to score.
Considering what the Reds went through on Wednesday night in Tashkent – being bundled out of the AFC Champions League after falling just short after 120 minutes of a tension filled encounter, they could have possibly been excused of not having enough reserves in the tank to take it up to Newcastle.
However, Vidosic says there were no problems getting themselves up for the match with the Jets despite all the drama and heartbreak in Tashkent just days earlier.
“It-s the first game of the season, a new beginning, we-ve trained a long time for the first opportunity and we also want to make the wrongs right from last season,” Vidosic said.
“I think we did brilliantly considering the circumstances of what we went through the week before.”
With their gruelling schedule now behind them, Vidosic predicts a fresher and even more energised Reds outfit for Friday night-s first home game of the season against Western Sydney Wanderers.
“We learnt from that and now we can take it into the A-League,” Vidosic said.
“We-re better prepared, even though maybe in the first game fitness was down a bit due to fatigue, but I think on Friday night I think we-ll come out firing and a better team.”
But before that, Vidosic is looking forward to returning to familiar surroundings of home and resting up after what has been a massive week.
“I-m looking forward to bed. I-m just looking forward to going home and relaxing a little bit, putting the legs up and laying in a bed after we spent two night in a plane,” Vidosic said.
“But in saying that I-m not complaining, it-s all part of it, we enjoyed the week, we learnt a lot from it and hopefully we can carry it through.”
