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Adelaide United have marked themselves as early A-League pacesetters by defeating the North Queensland Fury 3-2 at Dairy Farmers Stadium.
Still undefeated under their new manager Rini Coolen, Adelaide moved to the top of the ladder, while the Fury absorbed their first defeat of the season.
A crowd of 6130 watched both teams fight it out in the first half only for Adelaide to find their feet in the second and dominate with the help of an own goal.
Coolen was pleased with how his team played but said they needed to work on playing for the full 90 minutes.
“For 70 minutes of the game we were the better team but the last 20 minutes we made it difficult for ourselves,” he said.
“We have to work on that last 20 minutes. I would prefer to speak about the 70 minutes. We played really good football.
“We scored three goals on an away game and created a lot of chances and a lot of movement.”
The Fury were quick off the mark with Eugene Sseppuya getting the ball, making a turn and getting an accurate cross to the head of Isaka Cernak who tapped it into the back of the net after 8 minutes to give North Queensland an early lead of 1-0.
Adelaide levelled at 1-1 in the 22nd minute with Paul Reid getting a cross into Marcos Flores who chested the ball and then smashed it past diving Fury goal keeper Justin Pasfield.
Adelaide United put in a last effort before halftime to take the lead with Cameron Watson getting a cross to Sergio Van Dijk whose header was desperately pushed away by Pasfield in the 40th minute.
In the 50th minute, Brett Studman had a moment in his debut for the Fury he will want to forget after trying to deflect a shot on goal from Adelaide captain Lucas Pantelis, only for the ball to roll into the back of his own net to give Adelaide a 2-1 lead from an own goal.
Adelaide notched the matchwinner six minutes later with a Pantelis corner finding Daniel Mullen’s head and then the far corner of the net giving Pasfield no chance to save the Fury from a 3-1 scoreline.
North Queensland replied too late in the 87th minute when Dyron Daal got a pass to David Williams, who smashed home.
Fury assistant coach Stuart McLaren couldn’t be too critical of his team as he believed their opponent was a high quality one.
“Adelaide is a good side and they worked very hard to wrestle back to take control of the game,” he said.
“There are obviously little incidences where we hoped to have done better but all in all I cant fault the lads for their effort and enthusiasm.
“It was a slight opportunity lost but you’ve got to recognise when you’re up against a good side it is going to be tough to beat them.”
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