Carl Veart said he was relatively pleased with his team’s performance in spite of surrendering a one-goal lead before losing 2-1 against the Central Coast Mariners on Thursday.
The result ended Adelaide United’s impressive six-match winning streak as well as miss out on the chance to leapfrog the ladder leaders.
Kusini Yengi scored his third goal of the campaign to give the visitors the lead, while goalkeeper Joe Gauci made two penalty saves.
However, two goals in four minutes in the second-half overturned the deficit and the Mariners collected the three points to remain in first place.
“It was a tough night, both teams had a good crack at it,” Veart told the media in the post-match press conference.
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get anything out of the game but we’re happy with the way we played.
“It would’ve been nice to have taken something from the game, but we don’t, so I can’t fault the effort from the boys.”
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Adelaide’s momentum began to wane when veteran centre-back Michael Jakobsen was forced off the field with an apparent hamstring injury.
Veart acknowledged they lost a little bit of the control, struggling to keep possession.
“Jakob (Michael Jakobsen) has been tremendous for us this season,” he said.
“So that experience and the quality that he has.
“It was a tough night, we went 1-0 up and we had a good opportunity to go 2-0 up.
“The way football is, it didn’t happen and they went down the other end and scored, so at times there was some momentum swings in the games we couldn’t control in our favour.”
The Reds’ focus now shifts to a huge home game at Coopers Stadium against Western Sydney Wanderers next Saturday night.
The boss was confident they will bounce back and said his players will have a few days off over Easter before returning to training on Monday.
“The boys have done a lot of extremely hard work to get to this point in the season,” Veart said.
“We’ve had two games close together and travelled up to this one.
“The boys will have the next three days off and report Monday to training on Monday and then we’ll start working towards Western Sydney.
“I think we’ve just past the halfway mark of the season, we’ve got seven home games left so there’s a lot of upside to go into this backend of the season.”
Next match details:
Saturday, 10 April vs Western Sydney Wanderers
A-League 2020/21 – Matchweek 16
Kick-off 6.40pm ACDT
Gates open 5.40pm ACDT
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Stream: Kayo Sports, MyFootball Live App
