Melbourne Heart have scored twice in the final minutes to end their seven game winless streak, stunning Adelaide United 2-1 at Hindmarsh Stadium and snapping the Reds run of seven consecutive victories at home.
Adelaide legend John Aloisi struck the injury time winner after Simon Colosimo had levelled the scores in the final minute of regular time.
Sergio van Dijk headed his ninth goal of the season to give United the lead right on the death of half time after Melbourne had put Adelaide under the pump in the closing stages.
Heart coach John van ‘t Schip admitted his felt they were a chance to salvage a result the longer United’s lead remained 1-0.
“We got into the game and the confidence was growing. The longer the game goes on, we kept believing in our game, a good result or at least a draw,” he said.
Reds boss Rini Coolen admitted United should have buried the Heart by adding a second goal, but were made to rue missed chances with minutes remaining.
“There were moments when would could have killed the game with second goal,” he said.
“I’m not happy with the result of course, it’s real disappointing, there were just five minutes before the end of the game.”
United went ahead on the stroke of half time after van Dijk’s perfectly placed header powered into the bottom corner beating Clint Bolton in Melbourne’s goal.
Marcos Flores threaded a through ball for Travis Dodd and the captain’s inch-perfect cross was strongly met by van Dijk.
Josip Skoko was introduced in the second half for the Heart and kick-started their fight back with Colosimo rising highest to head home the equaliser.
With Melbourne committing men forward, three Heart players rose unchallenged in the penalty are before the skipper converted the in-swinging corner.
Soon after, Aloisi was teed up by Jason Hoffman inside the area and the former Socceroo struck with the outside of his foot and his shot took a slight deflection off Adam Hughes and beat Reds keeper Eugene Galekovic.
In his first game in over a month, Daniel Mullen was taken off with a knee injury and Coolen later confirmed it could be serious.
Mullen was playing stopper in place of the injured Robbie Cornthwaite but when he was taken off, United were left short on defensive options and shifted Hughes into the heart of defence.
Joe Keenan was brought on to play in the middle of the park and the reshuffle looked to upset the balance for the home side, although Hughes performed solidly in defence.
Adelaide United 1 (van Dijk 45 +1)
Melbourne Heart 2 (Colosimo 89, Aloisi 90+1)
Crowd: 10,011 at Hindmarsh Stadium.
