Tomi Juric was thrilled to open his goal-scoring account in his second stint with Adelaide United on Sunday evening.
The Reds inflicted a 2-0 loss on Melbourne City to maintain their unbeaten start under Carl Veart’s reign.
Juric and Captain Stefan Mauk contributed second-half goals against the 10-man visitors to seal the three points.
The 29-year-old admitted it was an amazing feeling to score his first goal at Coopers Stadium for Adelaide.
The strike meant a lot for the talisman, who took his shirt off in celebration overcome with pure jubilation.
“Personally, for me it’s been a rough couple of years so that one meant a lot especially coming back home now,” Juric told the media at a recovery session at Henley Square.
“As I said, home fans, first home game, first three points so everything just looked good yesterday, so it was a really good feeling.”
The goal stemmed from a set-piece manoeuvre straight off the training pitch with Juric revealing the credit must go to Assistant Coach, Ross Aloisi, for being behind the routine which saw Louis D’Arrigo disguise his free-kick to the unmarked striker.
“Ross (Aloisi) will be proud of that because we did a bit of work on that on the training pitch,” he stated.
“So it’s fantastic that it worked out and we did a bit of research and some video on them, so it was the right place, the right time and it worked a charm.”
More than 10,000 fans packed into Coopers Stadium to attend the match and Juric declared it was fantastic to see and something he does not take for granted, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
It was the Reds’ first competitive home game since March 15 last year.
“It’s definitely a good thing (playing in front of fans), you don’t really want to get used to playing in front of empty stadiums,” he claimed.
“We play our sport for the fans and that’s something I certainly appreciated yesterday and I certainly hope they did as well being able to come back to the stadium.”
Another standout in the victory was goalkeeper James Delianov, whose decisive reflex saves prevented City from taking the lead in the first-half.
The 21-year-old recorded a second consecutive clean sheet since his arrival to the Club and is yet to concede a goal in his three career A-League matches.
Juric praised the former Western United and City gloveman and stated consistency will be key.
“He’s shown in parts in training that he some good qualities as a goalkeeper,” he continued.
“And he’s done that now in a few games, so it’s up to him to continue this consistency and hopefully he’ll play an important role for us to push for finals.”
Next match details:
Game date: Saturday, 16 January vs Perth Glory
A-League 2020/21 – Matchweek 4
Kick-off 6.40pm ACDT
Venue: HBF Park
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Stream: Kayo Sports, MyFootball Live App
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