Adelaide United Youth Reserves have defeated Croydon Kings Reserves 2-1 to progress to next weekend’s Preliminary Final at the VALO Football Centre on Saturday.
Noah McNamara scored from a rehearsed set piece move off the training park before Jason Konstandopoulos added the important insurance goal.
The Kings pulled a goal back late, but United deservingly held on in what was a comprehensive display.
Head Coach, Adrian Stenta, said he was pleased in the way in which his side acquitted themselves and stuck to the game plan.
“Just really content to be honest,” he said after the match.
“We went in with a very clear game plan and style of how we wanted to play against some good opposition.
“And the boys executed probably as well as they have all season.
“It was a fairly dominant performance and apart from conceding right towards the end of the second-half I think we controlled the match in exactly the way we wanted to.”
https://twitter.com/aufc_YouthTeam/status/1167717267636772866?s=20
Stenta added: “Right across the park everyone played really, really well. Everyone contributed there were no passengers today and we put in a really solid defensive display as well.
“We matched our opposition physically and we had plenty of the ball and we pushed it around quite well and were able to create quite a few good attacking moments.
“I thought Croydon defended really, really well too and made it difficult for us to capitalise on any attacking moments that we had.”
Adelaide will meet Raiders in the Preliminary Final next week for a place in the Grand Final against Adelaide Comets.
The Gepps Cross based club, who finished top on goal difference, suffered a 3-0 aggregate loss to Comets.
Stenta said it will be interesting to see how his side handle the pressure after falling short in last year’s prelim.
“Obviously we were knocked out at the prelim stage last year and so it’s really a game we’re looking forward to,” he explained.
“To see what we’ve learnt from last year’s final series and how we’ve improved.
“And we’ve had again some really good games with Raiders this year so we know they’ll be a really tough opponent – they finished top at the end of the season so it’s going to be a challenge but a challenge we’re up for.”
