Adelaide United coach Carl Veart says his side felt the pressure from Melbourne Victory and made too many errors in their own half in Saturday night’s disappointing defeat at AAMI Park.
Despite a strong first half display that saw The Reds go into the break level, second half goals to Zinédine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli handed Victory the win.
Speaking after the game, Veart said his side would reflect on the performance but will need to quickly turn its attention to Wellington who the Reds face at home on Thursday.
Carl Veart on his side performance and the pressure from Melbourne Victory:
“It was a very tough contest tonight between two strong sides. I think the first half was fairly even. And then the second half we saw the pressure from Victory caused us to make some errors in our own half. And we gave the ball away a little bit too easy in our own half, which allowed them to keep that pressure on us. And then we gave away too many easy free kicks that we shouldn’t have given away in that second half, and the pressure just built on us. They’re very good side and they just wore us out in the end.”
Carl Veart on Adelaide’s decision making:
“They’re a very good side and they put you under pressure, which forces you into making mistakes that you wouldn’t normally make. And I think tonight that’s what it was.
I was fairly happy with a lot of our football, and we got into the areas we wanted to get in to. But we’ve done it a few times now, where we just got to have that little bit better decision making, not just in the front third, but in our own half as well.
They are a very good side and very difficult to break down. We had our challenges tonight, but overall, the boys worked hard, and we just struggled with that final end product.”
Carl Veart on his sides recent slump in form:
“The League is a very difficult league. And if you don’t do your best, you can find it difficult to pick up results. But we’re confident in the way that we’re going. We’re confident with the football that we’re playing. We’ve got two home games now, with two short turnarounds. So the boys will pick themselves up and we’ll go in with confidence to the game against Wellington.”
Carl Veart on the next few games without Joe Gauci:
“We’ve known for a while that there’s there was a very good possibility that Joe will be missing for all of January. We’re very fortunate that we’ve got an excellent goalkeeper that’s our number two at the moment in James Delianov. It was only 18 months ago he was our number one. He picked up an injury and then Joe took off from there. So we know James is a very capable goalkeeper, and could be a number one in most teams in the league.
Carl Veart on James Delianov’s development and opportunity:
“When I bought James to the Club three years ago. We bought him to be the number one because he was the best young goalkeeper in the country. So we still have that belief in James. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s had some unfortunate luck and a couple of injuries that he picked up. But the last 12 months he’s worked extremely hard. And he’s pushed Joe. Joe’s only got to this level because of the competition that he has at training and the way that they work together. That’s what goalkeepers do. They have their own little union, and they push each other and they enjoy each other’s success. James has now got an opportunity to show everyone how good he is.”
Carl Veart on the next two matches at home:
We know Hindmarsh is a very difficult place for away teams to come to. Our supporters really get behind us, like today with the Victory support – it got behind their side. We generally perform very well at home and we expect to have good performance against Wellington on Thursday.
Carl Veart on the injury to Jonny Yull:
Jonny had to come off at half-time with concussion from the head knock in the first half. I’d say he’d be missing for a few weeks.
