Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen has labelled his side’s record breaking 8-1 demolition of North Queensland Fury as a ‘perfect’ performance.
Coolen admitted conceding a long range effort from Panagiotis Nikas 20 minutes from time was the only blemish on a night where Hyundai A-League records tumbled.
United produced the most goals scored by an A-League club, eclipsing the previous record of six held by Melbourne Victory (twice), Adelaide and Wellington while also registering the biggest winning margin.
The match also saw the most amount of goals in a single match (nine), equalling the 5-4 win by Sydney over Central Coast in the 2007-08 campaign while Marcos Flores and Sergio van Dijk became the first team-mates to score hat-tricks in the same match.
“I didn’t know that it was a record,” said Coolen.
“If you get a performance like this, winning a game, the crowd is happy, a lot of fantastic goals – not keeping a clean sheet is the only thing that could be better or course.”
“The whole game makes us real happy. So many goals, we created so many chances and all the goals were good, nice to watch so it makes the total feeling that everything was perfect today.”
Reds captain Travis Dodd also hailed the emphatic display and praised United for killing off the Fury – something Adelaide has struggled to do in the past.
The victorious skipper said while United would savour the resounding win, they must quickly turn their attention to their remaining fixtures with the Reds locked in a battle for second spot with the Mariners.
With the win, United regained second on goal difference but Central Coast have a game in hand ahead of their meeting on Saturday.
“We’ve had opportunities in the past where we haven’t done it. It was great to see the result tonight and really put them to the sword,” he said.
“It could have been easy for us to sit back and take our foot off the pedal. But, credit to the boys, they kept the right attitude and right mentality to keep pushing on and keep scoring goals.”
“We’ve got an important four games left. We’ve got to savour this win but just focus on the next win and put in the same attitude and mentality and come out with another good win.”
Dodd also paid tribute to team-mate Flores after another dazzling exhibition from the skillful playmaker.
The Argentine maestro bagged a hat-trick but also demonstrated his superb vision and precise passing with two well crafted assists for van Dijk and Dodd.
“He’s an outstanding player, a great no.10 to have in your side,” he said.
“I guess the understanding I had with him personally tonight was fantastic. It’s great playing alongside Marcos. You can make those runs and know more often than not put those killer passes in for you to have an attempt on goal or set them up.”
“He is an invaluable member to the team.”
Van Dijk’s hat-trick sees him jump to 16 goals for the season, six clear of his nearest rivals, Brisbane pair Jean Carlos Solorzano and Kosta Barbarouses and Robbie Kruse of the Victory.
