Coach John Kosmina thinks Sunday’s victory over Wellington could possibly be the wake up call the Reds needed as they head into a busy and telling festive period.
A win is a win but Coach John Kosmina thinks Sunday-s win over Wellington could possibly be the wake up call the Reds needed as they head into a busy and telling festive period.
Following the 3-1 result against the Phoenix, Kosmina was left to reflect on his team-s fifth win from six games at home this season and having claimed 16 points out a possible 18 at Hindmarsh.
These numbers may make for attractive reading but Kosmina believes the Reds were a tad off the boil and certainly not at their peak against Wellington, that is despite scoring three times in the first half.
“We didn-t play badly, we had our moments, but we probably let Wellington back in the game,” Kosmina said.
“We did enough to win the game but we should have gone on with it after half time and we didn-t.”
“We scored three but we made enough opportunities and situations where we could have added a couple more goals.”
While putting the magnifying glass on his side, Kosmina also paid dues to the Phoenix, who continued to fight to the end and could easily have found themselves in the contest nearing the end of the first half after having a goal disallowed.
“Wellington are a better team than a lot of people give them credit for, Kosmina said.
“They-re a dangerous side, they beat us here last season, they get results away from home and they caused us a few problems today which we dealt with quite well in the main.”
“But having said that we probably need to be a bit more urgent, a bit more intense, and maybe it-s a bit of a come down after the high of Melbourne Victory last week.”
Kosmina directs some of why the Reds may not have been fully on their game down to himself as he claims he took a more subdued approach in the hours leading up to kick-off.
“Probably the whole approach to it was a little bit too casual, and partly that-s maybe my fault because I was very low key in the dressing room before the game,” Kosmina said.
“Tonight we probably didn-t play as well as we probably could of or played with the intensity that we should of, but to still get a result like that, you-ve got to take the three points and three goals and be happy.”
“I guess a quieter performance today will maybe snap us into some life for the three weeks we-ve got ahead of us because they-re really tough ones that we-ve got to get some points out of.”
The three weeks Kosmina speaks of will see the Reds play three games in 11 days, starting with a trip to western Sydney to face the Wanderers before returning to Adelaide for Boxing Day and New Years Eve blockbusters against Brisbane Roar and Sydney FC.
The Reds might glance at the table and see an eight point gap between them and third place, but Kosmina says there are measures to ensure his team does not get ahead of itself leading up to the New Year.
“We have a realistic appraisal of today,” Kosmina answered when questioned on how the Reds would keep from developing a complacent mentality.
“Wellington scored what I thought was a legitimate goal and 2-1 instead of 2-nil you-re looking at a vastly different game.”
“You have a look at that and maybe we need to wake up a little bit for next week, we-ve got three really tough games coming up, we need to be really focused and tuned in for them.”
Kosmina also dismissed any notion the Premiership was already only a two horse race between his side and the Central Coast Mariners, and said he and the players would be smart to take no notice of the table and more onto Friday night-s opponents.
“You can-t deny the table but if you pay too much attention to it you lose focus,” Kosmina said.
“You use the example that we-ve got eight points on Melbourne – that-s great from the fact that we-re second but if you want to rely on that then you-re going to get yourself in trouble.”
“We still need to beat Western Sydney and not worry about what the Central Coast do, don-t worry about the gap.”
“We need to say we-ve got to win next week and that-s what we-ve got to do…the outcomes are at the end of the season.”
