Adelaide United Head Coach, Adrian Stenta, is relishing the selection headaches he has ahead of Friday’s match against Newcastle Jets.
Welcoming back Captain, Isabel Hodgson, alongside Ella Tonkin, who has missed the majority of this season with a foot injury, and Emilia Murray and Grace Wilson, who have both recently been on international duty, provides Stenta with a much deeper side to choose from – a stark contrast to the week prior against Perth Glory.
Speaking to media at Coopers Stadium after his team’s final hit-out before their game against the Jets, Stenta was confident going into the clash, especially after being back to winning ways.
The final games of the season:
“We’re not really looking at the Finals equation because it’s not really in our hands.
“We’ve just set a target for how we want to finish the season and we took a good step forward last week with a win.
“We’ll be going as hard as we can to win the remaining three games.
“We’ve gone through a fairly rough patch throughout the season, where we didn’t win for an extended period of time.
“So I think focusing on anything apart from each game is a little bit dangerous.”
Ending the winless streak:
“It wasn’t easy because players sometimes struggle for form and confidence, especially when things aren’t going your way.
“But we just focused on the actual performances themselves and just tried to improve from one week to the next.
“We had a little break in the middle of the season where we didn’t have a game for a couple of weeks and we were able to reset.
“And I think our three games since that break have been really positive.”
Players returning to the squad:
“It’s really important for us.
“Last week we weren’t even able to name a full bench because we had so many players missing.
“But it’s given some young players some opportunities, and they stood up and did really well against Perth
“It’s always nice, as a coach, to have more players available for selection and I’ve actually got a few headaches this week in terms of who plays and who doesn’t and that’s a nice headache to have.”
Childhood Cancer Association are this week’s Presenting Partner for Adelaide United’s games against Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix in the Liberty A-League and Isuzu UTE A-League respectfully. Click here to donate to their important cause.
