Adelaide United defender Robbie Cornthwaite says he has no fears of tackling the Gold Coast, adding that the new club’s own self-promotion has added extra pressure on it ahead of the Round 3 clash at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday.
The Coast’s ambitions to go through the Hyundai A-League season undefeated and coach Miron Bleiberg’s concerns about the Reds’ defensive game has generated some friction ahead of the match.
But Cornthwaite said the Adelaide players had not been sucked into the hype and were looking forward to tackling the undefeated side.
“They’ve definitely got a big target on their back and that’s probably been put there by themselves,” he said.
“After watching the first two rounds of the A-League, I’ve watched all the games, and there’s no team I’m really fearful of and I know if we play at our best we are capable of beating any team including the Gold Coast.”
Cornthwaite and his defensive team-mates will face their own pressure to perform with the Gold Coast recording eight goals in its first two games.
The 24-year-old was optimistic of success given the team had only conceded one goal in its opening contests.
“The first week I had a big challenge with Eugene Dadi and then last week John Aloisi. Smeltzy is in really good form along with Porter so yeah, I’m going to have my hands full,” he said.
Adelaide’s defence, which lost Sasa Ognenovski during the off-season, has received early praise from the club.
Cornthwaite said a long pre-season had them gelling well already.
“We’ve forged a pretty good partnership early on,” he said.
“Hopefully that can continue along with the form of the back four, I think defensively we’ve been pretty good so we are looking to continue.”
“Obviously the loss of Sasa is big, and has been talked about a lot, but I think at the moment, the way we are playing, not many people are noticing.”
