Carl Veart lamented a lack of polish in the final third but was pleased with Adelaide United’s resilience in its late comeback draw against Wellington Phoenix.
The Reds looked like they would be heading for a second successive defeat until 17-year-old Bernardo’s equalising header salvaged a point in the second minute of injury time.
Veart believed the 1-1 draw was a fair result.
“I suppose when you look at the balance of the game we got into a lot of good positions, but then our final cross or final ball, again we let ourselves down a little bit with that,” Veart told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“They caught us in transition quite a few times, but overall the boys stuck at it and kept going right until the end and I suppose in the end we deserved a point.”
It was Bernardo’s debut professional goal and in doing so became the third youngest scorer in the Club’s history after Mohamed Toure and Nestory Irankunda.
Veart was delighted for the winger after netting on his 11th Isuzu UTE A-League appearance.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to get a little more end product out of Bernardo,” he said.
“Even though he’s quite young and he’s learning the game, we keep encouraging him to be positive and got inside the back post and got the header at the end.
“Full credit to him that he kept going there, but as I said, a little bit disappointed that we didn’t make more of the opportunities we created.”
English attacking midfielder Zach Clough also made his Reds debut in what was an auspicious cameo outing.
“He had a couple of good touches, had a shot at goal,” he said.
“He’s finding his feet in the team as well and the style of football that we play as well, so it’s going to take a little bit of time, but promising signs.”
The Reds now travel to Melbourne to tackle in-form Melbourne City on Tuesday night before later facing Macarthur FC on Saturday to complete three matches in a week.
Veart said he will see how the players pull up in the next few days before making any major changes and was expecting a tough game against one of the competition’s strongest sides and reigning champions.
“I think it’s difficult for all the teams with these catch-up games,” he continued.
“I suppose we’re fortunate enough we don’t have a lot of these catch-up games to catch-up, because it’s going to stretch a lot of the teams.
“It’s going to be a difficult game for us Tuesday night to go to Melbourne City, they’re flying at the moment and they had a great result last night.
“But we have a belief in ourselves and we’ll go there and play our brand of football and whoever plays on the park will give their best effort, and that’s all as a coach you can ask.”
