Adelaide United Youth Reserves Head Coach, Adrian Stenta, says his side must not dwell on their heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to Adelaide Comets in the Federation Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.
The contest finished 1-1 at full-time and then 2-2 after extra-time before the NPL Reserves would suffer a tough 5-4 loss on penalties.
Stenta admitted the result was a hard pill to swallow, after being so close to reaching the cup final.
“Obviously there was a bit of disappointment there because the boys put in a lot of work and effort,” he said.
“And we felt like we gave ourselves enough opportunities to win the game both in normal time and in extra-time. We certainly finished quite strongly.
“But we just fell a bit short and unable to get the job done in the penalty shootout.
But Stenta said his team’s focus must quickly switch back to the league and not let their semi-final defeat hinder their impressive form.
The Young Reds have won their past five league matches and sit three points clear at the top of the table.
“The good thing about being involved in any competition is that you can’t rest on what’s been, whether it’s a positive result or negative result,” he stated.
“So we’ve got a quick turnaround and we’re looking forward to playing Adelaide City this week and getting our season back on track and on the league now.”
Indeed, Adelaide City Reserves inflicted a 2-0 loss on United Youth earlier in the season and Stenta is anticipating a hard-fought game.
“There’s always pressure to continue to perform and we had a disappointing result against City last time that we played them,” he continued.
“So we’re looking forward to having another opportunity to play them again and we think it will be a tough match as all the matches are that we play in.
“But again it’s another opportunity, another chance for us to put into practice what we train and what we’ve building towards for most of this year.”
Adelaide United Youth face Adelaide City in Round 14 of the National Premier League 2019 season on Saturday, 15 June at VALO Football Centre – The Parks. Kick-off is at 3.00 PM. Reserves kick-off at 12.45pm.
