Adelaide United have kept the pressure on league leader Brisbane Roar with a solid 2-0 win over North Queensland Fury at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night as the Reds made it seven consecutive wins at home.
United move to within four points of the runaway Roar, and could close the gap to a point after their game in hand, courtesy of goals to Marcos Flores and Sergio van Dijk inside the opening quarter of an hour.
Despite the Reds domination, they failed to kill off the contest and coach Rini Coolen admitted a third goal would have certainly buried the Fury.
“At the end of the day we got the three points, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
“We created a lot of chances but we have to score a few more goals to make the game safer.”
The Fury were without coach Franz Straka who remained in Townsville with severe flu and the former Czech Republic international would not have liked what he saw with the Reds opening up in superb fashion.
With assistant coach Stuart McLaren facing a club-imposed media ban, Football Operations Manager Stuart Middleby attended the post match press conference and acknowledged the current ”tough” times in Townsville.
“We need to give credit to the boys, it’s difficult times at the moment at North Queensland,” he said.
“We have got a lot of character in the team but it is trying times and we’ve got to bounce back.”
Adelaide punished some pedestrian Fury defending inside the opening five minutes when Flores smashed the ball into the bottom corner from six yards.
The Reds won possession back after a botched corner with Cassio firing it back into the danger zone to see Robert Cornthwaite’s misdirected header fall fortuitously for Paul Reid.
The hardnosed midfielder picked out Flores with a superb first-time cut back and the Argentine handed the Reds the lead, skipping in ahead of four statuesque Fury defenders.
Ten minutes later and United doubled their advantage with Cassio providing a centimetre-perfect cross for van Dijk to head past Justin Pasfield in the North Queensland goal.
The pocket rocket baulked down the left, feigned a cross before beating his opponent to deliver a delightful ball for his striker.
Travis Dodd turned in a lively second half and nearly found the back of the net on the hour when he danced past two defenders on the byline.
The captain preferred to square the ball for Flores who was running through the middle, but the Argentine was beaten to the ball by the Fury defence.
Adelaide United 2 (Flores ‘4, van Dijk ’15)
North Queensland Fury 0
8786 at Hindmarsh Stadium
