Adelaide United’s towering stopper Robert Cornthwaite admitted his silky run in the dying stages to set up team-mate Iain Ramsay for the injury time winner in the 2-1 away victory against Sydney FC on Monday was one for his highlights reel.
The lanky central defender was thrown into attack for United on the hour mark after Marcos Flores (hamstring) and joint-leading scorer Sergio van Dijk (knee) were substituted within five minutes of each other due to injury, while other top scorer Matthew Leckie missed the clash through national team duty with the Young Socceroos.
Cornthwaite, no stranger to playing up front, was labelled ‘nimble’ in some sections in the media in Adelaide after gliding through the Sydney defence and riding a tackle before teeing up Ramsay from 10 metres out.
The 24 year-old admitted ‘nimble’ isn’t often a term associated with the gangly stopper before joking his run resembled that of his speedy team-mate Leckie.
“Unco is something I probably get a bit more, but I-ll take it,” he laughed.
“It’s a bit of a collector’s item that one, I didn’t even think I had it in me.”
“I had a bit of banter with the boys about it and apparently a few of the commentators even thought it was (Matthew) Leckie going down the wing, but yeah I had a bit of fun with it, it was good.”
Cornthwaite, a long-time best friend and roommate of ex-Red Scott Jamieson, was causing Sydney plenty of problems late in the game and was denied a header at the back post moments before Ramsay’s winner, by his former team-mate.
The 197cm metre stopper saw the funny side and could afford a laugh at Jamieson getting in ahead of him and heading the ball clear, despite the Sydney defender conceding 20cm in height.
“I spoke to him about it after the game and (in that incident) gave him a good little headbutt in the back of the head,” he laughed.
“I was just on my heels a little bit and not used to being up there and probably should have got on the end of it, but he’ll let me know about that one for a while winning that header.”
Cornthwaite conceded the Reds were fortunate to come away with maximum points despite being outplayed for much of the match and said United’s hard work and form meant they were starting to create their own luck.
The United stopper admitted a ‘lucky break’ against Sydney means the Reds remain the only undefeated side in the Hyundai A-League and to go into the FIFA international break weekend without a loss in nine games is ‘fantastic.’
“I think so but you make your own luck,” he said.
“We’ve been working really hard over the last nine or 10 weeks and playing some really good stuff, only playing maybe one or two bad games in the first nine so you deserve a bit of luck when you’re going along like that. If it continues to go our way then it is looking really good for the rest of the season.”
“Obviously we are full of confidence even though we didn’t play the best game. Sydney were probably a better side and the mentality from the lads was fantastic and we didn’t give in. We got a bit of a lucky break and we went on from there and going into the break still undefeated is fantastic for us.”
