Binyam Kebede’s stunning strike helped Adelaide United Youth to a 1-0 win over South Adelaide at Jack Smith Park on Saturday night.
The striker collected the ball outside the box, turned and curled his finish into the top corner on 35 minutes for his third of the season.
It proved the solitary goal of the match after Adelaide were given a reprieve after Jonathon Rideout missed the target completely from the penalty spot four minutes later.
Chances arrived at a premium in the second-half with the Young Reds able to defend their slender advantage to claim their first clean sheet and climb into equal third on the ladder with a second successive win.
Head of Youth Football, Airton Andrioli, was pleased with how his team controlled proceedings and set up defensively.
“I was happy with the boys again,” Andrioli explained.
“We threw a few challenges at them during the week, we identified a few things that we needed to improve on.
“One of the things was our defensive work because we have been conceding goals in every game.
“We set ourselves some targets not to concede and defend better and credit to the boys I think they did an extremely good job defensively – not just the backline – but as a team.”
Andrioli was delighted to see his striker, in Kebede, find the net and hoped that goal would give him confidence and belief moving forward.
“Binny (Binyam Kebede) works extremely hard and he’s been struggling a little bit this year to score goals,” he continued.
“Because when you’re a striker you get judged by the number of goals you score – that’s your main job.
“But in saying that, he’s been persistent in his work and tried to improve in those areas.
“… Credit to him, he scored a great goal and I hope that can give him a confidence boost that he needs and he can relax a bit more and enjoy his football and do what he’s capable of.”
Adelaide United Reserves
Adelaide United Reserves made it consecutive wins with a 3-1 victory against South Adelaide Reserves.
Calum Campbell, Patrick McGregor and Luka Dobrovolski were on target as the side remain in second place on the table.
