Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen blamed the packed A-League schedule for his team’s 1-0 loss to Wellington Phoenix.
A first-half header from Chris Greenacre sealed Wellington’s first victory over Adelaide at Hindmarsh Stadium and ensured the hosts would be unable to catch Gold Coast United in second place.
It was Adelaide’s second match in four days after their 0-0 draw away to Gold Coast on Wednesday and Coolen feared the worst before his tired players even took to the field on Saturday.
“First of all you have to prepare your team properly after a really hard schedule,” Coolen said.
“To be honest (I was) a little worried before the game already if everybody pulls up well.”
“I think my team was not ready to play another game again. But we have to do it, everybody has to do it.”
“We started well. In the first half we were better; the first 20 minutes we missed a couple of chances as well as the last fifteen minutes.”
“In the second half we came back well and I think we deserved a little bit more today.”
“Sometimes you can lose a game where you deserve a little more. What made me angry is the situation we are in from the schedule, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Everyone has to do it, but one thing is for sure – it’s not good.”
“We’ve lost that second spot and now we have to fight for position number three. We have to win a home game against Melbourne Victory.”
“We have a couple of days to recover and just find out who’s available, try to win the game and build up the confidence for the rest of the games.”
Wellington goalkeeper Daniel Vukovic was delighted with a win that takes the New Zealand club one step closer to sealing sixth place and a finals berth.
“It’s always good to keep a clean sheet, especially away from home,” Vukovic said.
“We haven’t done too well away from home, so it was good to get that goal and defend the lead.”
“I think that’s the first time we’ve won two in a row. It’s good for the confidence and we might even play Adelaide first game in the finals, so bit of a psychological win for us. We’re close, but not all of the way there yet.”
