Carl Veart continues to praise Adelaide United’s belief and fighting spirit after yet another dramatic late winner allowed the Reds to steal a 2-1 victory over Newcastle Jets.
George Blackwood opened the scoring on three minutes before Angus Thurgate equalised midway through the second half for the visitors.
The Jets were all over Adelaide and peppered the home side’s goal but couldn’t find a breakthrough before substitute Mohamed Toure got his toe on the end of a Craig Goodwin cross in the 88th minute to guide Adelaide to their third consecutive win.
It was United’s 10th goal after the 84th minute in matches this season, resulting in the Reds collecting 16 points courtesy of those late strikes.
“The boys have a lot of belief and they keep fighting,” Veart said.
“And that showed again tonight, they scored another late goal, I don’t know how many that is now; 10 late goals.
“It’s becoming a bit of a habit – that’s excellent, it’s credit to the players to keep fighting.”
Despite the win, Adelaide was second best for the majority of the second half.
The Jets had a handful of chances before eventually equalising and looked the favourites to nab a winner.
Veart said the early goal relaxed the Reds a little too much while acknowledging the Jets proved to be a tough assignment for Adelaide, especially in the second
half.
“Maybe we scored too early in that first half and we sort of just relaxed a little too much,” Veart said.
“In that second half we knew Newcastle were going to came at us because they need to start picking up points; we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
Newcastle Jets coach Arthur Papas lamented a host of missed opportunities.
“The second half was really positive,” Papas said.
“We should score, at least two or three goals to be honest, and if you don’t score it you leave yourself open.”