An Iain Ramsay goal in stoppage time has helped Adelaide United extend their lead at the top of the Hyundai A-League ladder with a 2-1 victory over a desperately unlucky Sydney FC at the Sydney Football Stadium on Monday.
While the Sky Blues failed to land the killer blow despite dominating the final half-hour of the match, the Reds took full advantage of a rare shot on goal in the 91st minute when Robbie Cornthwaite beat his man and fed Ramsay who thundered the ball into the back of the net from close range.
The win lifts the Reds to 21 points, six clear of Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners after managing six wins and three draws from their first nine matches under coach Rini Coolen.
In stark contrast, the defending champions remain rooted to the bottom of the ladder on four points, having yet to taste victory in the 2010/11 campaign.
The home side dominated the first half and finally got some reward for their efforts in the 40th minute when Alex Brosque converted from the penalty spot.
Defender Iain Fyfe was the villain for the Reds as referee Gerard Parsons pointed to the spot after the former Sky Blues stalwart tugged Stephan Keller’s shirt from a Shannon Cole corner kick.
But as they have done so often this season, the Sky Blues surrendered their early lead on 56 minutes when Sydney defender Shannon Cole found the back of his own net.
Industrious Reds skipper Lucas Pantelis made the initial break and sent a ball in behind the defence for Van Dijk before Cole’s ill-directed back-pass wrong-footed Reddy to gift the visitors the equaliser.
Desperate for the three points, the Sky Blues threw caution to the wind and created several guilt-edged chances only to be denied by the brilliant Galekovic on at least three occasions.
But it wasn’t to be for the hosts.
Adelaide coach Rini Coolen praised his players’ refusal to surrender but concedes Sydney FC were the better side on the day.
“I think they (Sydney) normally should win this game, they were much better than us,” Coolen said.
“I feel sorry for them because they needed the points and they were better to be honest, and that’s not good for us but we were happy that we scored the last goal of course.”
“I’m really happy for the team that if you play a game like this and you’re not happy with the way you play, but if you work so hard and keep on going and try to keep in the game then you get the result …. but we’re not happy with the way we played of course.”
A devastated Vitezslav Lavicka lamented his side’s inability to score more than one goal after surrendering the lead for the fifth time this season.
“My feeling in this moment is big disappointment of course,” Lavicka said.
“I think we had activity most of the game, we created the chances. A few days ago I spoke here about our possibility to score more than one goal and it’s the same story again.”
“We scored the first one but we didn’t score another one.”
Adelaide United 2 (Cole 56og, Ramsay 91)
Sydney FC 1 (Brosque 40)
Crowd: 7071 at Sydney Football Stadium.
