Adelaide United boss Guillermo Amor admits he constantly believed in his players following its impressive 3-0 win against the Wellington Phoenix on Boxing Day.
The hosts had taken a first-half lead in fortuitous fashion when Manny Muscat netted an own goal, after his unsuccessful clearance off Craig Goodwin’s cross evaded gloveman Glen Moss.
MORE: A-League – Player Ratings – Adelaide United 3 Wellington Phoenix 0
Goodwin then grabbed a goal of his own courtesy of another Wellington error, as Moss made a hash of the winger’s tame strike.
Defender Michael Marrone put the icing on the cake with a simple tap in to consign the visitors to a 3-0 defeat and extended Adelaide’s unbeaten streak to four consecutive matches.
It was incidentally Marrone’s inaugural goal in the A-League, a drought which had lasted over 125 matches since making his debut in the competition in 2009.
“My impression is very good, it’s positive, we are happy for the result, for the game, for our attitude, for our work and it’s a good day for us,” Amor said in the post-match press conference.
“I think Wellington is a very good team, for me they are the most difficult team in the league, they have dangerous and good players with the ball.”
Amor said he always maintained his confidence in the squad, despite the poor results at the beginning of the season.
“I was always very confident in the team that we had even during the difficult moments, there was always a lot of confidence in the players,” Amor continued.
“There was always this hunger for doing better, obviously after a few wins you acquire far more confidence and you can feel that in the team.
“But it must be said the team have always worked properly, they have excelled even when the results have not been that good and the attitude in the team has always been a positive one.”
Amor also insisted it is not up to him to question the decision made by referee Chirs Beath to send off Albert Riera for a second bookable offence.
Adelaide next travel to Sydney for a New Year’s Day clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Wellington coach Ernie Merrick remained upbeat irrespective of the loss, but did lament his side’s inability to get into goal-scoring positions.
“At the moment we have only got one player that gets into out and out goal-scoring positions and that’s Roy [Krishna],” Merrick said.
“So if Roy’s tightly marked we don’t seem to have many options at the moment I can’t seem to get Roly [Bonevacia] in there or Mikey [McGlinchey] often enough.
“I just don’t think we get enough runs in behind centre-backs to get into goal-scoring positions and we lost Nathan Burns and we’re still suffering from that.”
Merrick also admitted the two mistakes which resulted in Adelaide goals ultimately proved costly.
“I thought in the first-half we controlled the midfield really well… we conceded a goal through our own fault it was an own goal of Manny Muscat,” Merrick said.
“The second goal that Goodwin scored, that was a mistake by Glen [Moss] and Glen doesn’t make many mistakes he’s had a fantastic year and he’s allowed to make a mistake.”
The New Zealand outfit have a short turnaround to prepare for its encounter with the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on New Year’s Eve.
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