The Adelaide United Youth Team fell to a 2-0 loss against Raiders in Round 9 of the National Premier League at the Croatian Sports Centre on Saturday night.
In thunderous conditions, both sides started the match with a high intensity shifting the ball across the pitch in a free flowing manner.
Within the opening ten minutes, the majority of play was in the middle of the park with Adelaide dominant in possession however found it difficult to break the lines into the Raiders half.
In the 15th minute, Raiders had their first opportunity of the match as Hutton-Addy found space on the right hand side, which saw a well-weighted delivery onto the head of Michael Paleka whose header was on target but lacked power.
Raiders than began to grow from this early chance, and in the 20th minute found the break through from new signing Matthew Mullen, after a beautifully taken corner allowed Mullen to stride through and direct a powerful header into the back of the net giving the hosts a 1-0 advantage.
The Young Reds began to hold the football and started to find gaps within the Raiders defence. However, Raiders were up to the challenge denying Adelaide any chances on goal.
Adelaide’s first real clear cut chance fell to Paul Wilson, as playmaker Riley McGree found space on the right flank and curled in a cross which Wilson headed just over the crossbar.
After the restart, it was much of the same from Adelaide United, Daniel Margush making some brilliant saves, while Clifford Maina and Wilson worked strong defensively to keep their team in the game for some time.
In the 57th minute McGree crossed a teasing ball past the goal mouth, however just escaped Jordan Elliott who arrived a fraction too late.
Although the tough conditions, the Young Reds were still pushing for an equaliser and substitute Blake Carpenter tried an audacious effort from 25 yards, but it flew wide of the post.
However, Adelaide’s persistence and strong endeavour came off nothing as in the 62nd minute, David Carosi slotted home from inside the 18-yard box extending Raiders lead to 2-0.
The Young Reds kept persisting however it was the Raiders who defended well and most importantly took all three points from the clash.
After the match, Youth Team Head Coach, Mark Jones, said he was disappointed that his team didn’t take out the win, but conceded that the Raiders were the hungrier of the two sides.
“I just thought that the Raiders were dominant all over the park tonight,” said Jones.
“We tried our hardest but just weren’t able to break down their side as they were structurally sound and scored when it counted.
“We have to make sure that we learn from this and that we channel it into next week’s game because we really need to start taking more points.
“Overall, there was a few times tonight we looked good but at the end of the day we need to take our chances and make sure we defend better as a team.”
