Adelaide United boss Guillermo Amor insists his side “deserved the result” after a convincing 3-1 performance over the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday.
Second-half goals from Craig Goodwin, Pablo Sanchez and Mate Dugandzic helped extend the Reds’ unbeaten run to seven successive matches without defeat and their fourth consecutive win at Coopers Stadium.
Despite the Reds missing a plethora of chances, Amor remained positive, stating the win was the most crucial thing and was unconcerned by his team’s profligacy.
“It’s good for us I think it’s deserved, we deserved the result,” Amor said in the post-match press conference.
“We had control of the game and I think we had a lot of chances to win before and when they drew level there were a few nervous and anxious moments.
“Had we perhaps closed the match earlier then, it would have been again calmer and easier to see out.
“We dominated this is important. The most important thing is that we won.”
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Amor was also pleased with Iacopo La Rocca’s outing after returning from injury and featuring for the first time this campaign.
“Yes it’s good, he’s at the level of the team. He’s missed a lot of time without playing and for him today was an important day,” Amor continued.
“Iacopo [La Rocca] is a man with experience and needs games in his legs.”
Adelaide next travel to Brisbane on Friday night to face a Roar outfit coming off the back of a 4-0 humiliation against Melbourne Victory, but without suspended pair Jimmy Jeggo and Michael Marrone.
Meanwhile, Central Coast boss Tony Walmsley gave a vote of confidence that newly announced signing Luis Garcia would feature in some capacity in next weekend’s game with the Western Sydney Wanderers and said he is the biggest player to ever sign for the club.
“He [Luis Garcia] will be [ready for next week] yeah we’ve seen the latest footage of him training, he’s in great nick,” Walmsley said.
“He’s not going to fly in from Madrid and be starting the game, but he’ll certainly be figuring off the bench that’s the idea at this stage.
“And he’s the kind of guy that’s I suppose Del Piero-esque in terms of where he can position himself on the field.
“Without a doubt in terms of Barcelona, Liverpool, Champions League [he’s the biggest signing of the club]… he’s right up there with all the marquees that have ever been here.”
On the match, Walmsley was disappointed with the result, but believed Adelaide merited their victory.
“We had a poor first-half… we didn’t put the young keeper [Daniel Margush] under any pressure in the first-half,” he explained.
“He [Margush] moved early for the penalty and we should have scored it we didn’t and we needed to change things.
“Adelaide were much better than us and if it wasn’t for Alastair Bray on his debut who made a good contribution I think we would have been a couple more goals behind.”
The Mariners boss also believed the decision to award Adelaide a spot-kick was incorrect because there was “no intent” when Craig Goodwin’s backheel hit Nick Montgomery’s arm.
The Gosford club host the Wanderers in their next match on Saturday night and are anticipating a huge crowd with Luis Garcia set to be named in the matchday squad.
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