Following his maiden goal for Adelaide United in a 2-1 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night, Reds forward Henrique is adamant the team is moving in the direction.
The Reds have so far collected just the one point in the opening two rounds of the Hyundai A-League 2016/17 season. However, despite remaining winless, Henrique insists there is no cause for concern and revealed it was a fantastic feeling to score in front of his home crowd at Coopers Stadium.
“It feels good (to score) apart from the result and I’m really happy with my personal performance,” Henrique said. “Of course I need to improve a few things, myself personally and as a team as well.
“I think we showed some good signs last night, so you could see it’s getting there, but of course it takes time.
“I’ve never played with them before and obviously we want to improve but we showed some good signs last night.
“I’m really glad to score my first goal in my first home match.”
Henrique admitted United would have grabbed all three points had they been more clinical in front of goal.
“First of all if we had of taken our opportunities the game would have been finished, we need to improve on that and of course some decisions that also we made and some other decisions let us down a little bit,” Henrique said.
The 31-year-old also refused to be drawn into the argument the game would have changed had Brendon Santalab been dismissed for a reckless tackle on James Holland six minutes before stoppage time.
“We are here now just saying maybe, maybe, maybe,” Henrique stated. “The decision was there for the referee and we can’t change that and if it’s a tackle, the referee’s there he’ll see if it’s a red card or yellow card.
“It was controversial, the referee is there to make a decision so he took his decision and the referee should be able to control the game.
“Especially coming from Brazil I want to play beautiful football and that’s the way I want to play and you know hard tackles are not good.”
Henrique further called for fans to return to Coopers Stadium next Saturday, ahead of the Club’s massive clash against fierce rivals Melbourne Victory.
“It’s another great game to play in front of our home supporters, it’s a very important game for us,” Henrique said.
“I hope to see all the supporters that we had last game (against the Wanderers) again next weekend.
“I really appreciate all the fans that came out I hope they come back next weekend and support us.”
Adelaide United host Melbourne Victory in Round 3 of the Hyundai A-League 2016/17 season on Saturday, 22 October at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.20pm ACDT. To purchase tickets, click here.
