Adelaide United coach Carl Veart says consistency is king for his Reds outfit following their 5-1 A-League Men’s demolition of Wellington Phoenix at Coopers Stadium.
The win extended Adelaide’s unbeaten run to 10 matches with the Reds last tasting defeat on January 7 when they were handed a 4-0 drubbing by Central Coast Mariners.
United were building momentum early in the season, winning three in a row as the league paused for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November.
Following the hiatus, Veart’s side recorded just one win in a run of five matches which culminated in that loss against the Mariners.
Since then, Adelaide have won six and drawn four, and sit in second, six points clear of the Mariners, Western Sydney Wanderers and the Phoenix, who are all locked on 31 points.
“We’ve been very consistent with our messaging and very consistent with the way we want to play,” Veart said.
“Once you get that confidence – and the boys have bucketloads of confidence now – it just falls that way for you at times.
“They have that belief and you can see that out there. We kept pushing and we kept working hard and we created some great opportunities.”
United’s recent form has been red-hot, with the victory against the Phoenix marking the fourth time in five games Adelaide have scored four goals or more.
Last month, Adelaide played out a classic 4-4 draw with the Wanderers while in the last fortnight, United have recorded back-to-back 4-2 victories over Newcastle Jets and league leaders Melbourne City.
Despite the Reds’ run and their ability to find the net seemingly at will, Veart has played down Adelaide’s rapidly rising championship chances.
“It’s good to be in this position. It’s good to be scoring the goals,” he said.
“I suppose we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’re fortunate that we have most of the games still to come at home.
“We’ve got a tough trip away to Wanderers next but all we can do is keep looking after ourselves, keep scoring goals, keep picking up points and hopefully everyone behind us drops points.”
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay felt his side started the better of the two teams but lamented coughing up cheap goals and gifting Adelaide a head start.
Talay said Wellington also squandered multiple clear scoring opportunities when the game was in the balance.
“Taking those chances, being clinical in front of goal and the moments that we get into these areas we need to be ruthless and punish teams,” he said.
“Conceding the goals the way we did, especially the third one straight after halftime with another set piece straight from a corner was disappointing and it’s hard to get yourself back into the game, especially away from home against Adelaide.”
Source: AAP