Adelaide United Liberty A-League coach Adrian Stenta has expressed his disappointment that his side was unable to take any points away from Perth after giving up a late goal against the Glory to go down 2-1 on Saturday night.
The Reds held a one-nil lead at half time after Dylan Holmes scored just before the break, and despite a relatively even contest, found themselves remaining winless this season after the Glory’s Rasamee Phonsongkham’s goal in the 86th minute.
Stenta’s side now has just one draw from its opening four matches.
Speaking after the game, he said the Glory got key moments right but he was proud of the way his side attacked the game, and he praised the return from injury of midfielder Nanako Sasaki.
Adrian Stenta on his feeling at half time with his side leading one-nil.
“(I was happy), not so much because of the score line or the result. But I was really happy with the way the team played. And with what our plans were pregame coming into the match, I thought the players carried them out to a tee. So, I was happy with the way that we played more than anything in the first half.”
Adrian Stenta on the disappointment of coming away with no points out of the game:
“I think if you watch the game objectively, you know, without any colours on or any support for either team, I think we deserved to get something out of that game. But sometimes, you know, football’s like that, right? And we are where we are at the moment. And Perth is where they are at the moment. It’s those little moments that can sometimes decide games so I’m more gutted for my playing group, because I think they really applied themselves and went about their business very well tonight. It’s a difficult place to come and play especially because you guys put the game on so late at night for us but I was really pleased with the performance and I don’t think the result is an accurate reflection of the game. I don’t think we deserve to lose, put it that way.”
Adrian Stenta on whether his side was unlucky against Perth:
“I don’t like the word unlucky because I don’t think luck plays that much of a part in it. To be honest. The biggest thing for me is, like we were disappointed with the way we played against Central Coast and the way we played against Melbourne Victory – we think we’re better than that. And we really wanted to come here tonight and show what we’re capable of. I was pleased with that and obviously, really disappointed that we weren’t able to get something out of the game.”
Adrian Stenta on his side’s improved defensive showing against the Glory:
“We’ve given away some really sloppy goals this year and giving away a lot of chances as well to teams too so I think defensively, we really worked on that this week to try and shore that up. It helps that we’re getting a couple of our key players back as well. It’s been a fairly interrupted preseason. We’ve had a lot of injury to deal with and we’re still managing a lot of players coming back and trying to get minutes into them so we’ll get healthier, we’ll get better, we’ll get stronger. But I agree with your assessment that we have been sloppy at the back in previous games and given up some poor goals. I think today we took a step forward defensively.
Adrian Stenta on Mariah Lee’s season so far:
“Mariah is a player that has experience, (she’s) played all around the world. She’s someone that we thought could bring a lot on and off the field to the group. And I’ve been pleased with her start so far with us. I hope that she continues in that vein and is able to get the rewards for that the effort that she’s putting in.”
Adrian Stenta on Nanako Sasaki’s first game this season following an off-season injury:
“I thought it was fantastic. Considering she hasn’t played a minute for us this year and has only really just come back to full training. She sustained an injury in our last trial game, pretty much and then we’ve had some illness that she’s been battling as well. So, she’s had a really rough offseason. I thought for her to come in and play the way that she did off the back of a very interrupted preseason, I was really happy with her performance today.”
