Adelaide United coach Carl Veart has hailed the performance of his match winner Craig Goodwin after he netted the clincher in a 2-1 win for the Reds over Newcastle Jets.
In just his second game since returning to the club on loan, Goodwin was a stand-out on Friday, combining well, and often, with Ryan Strain down the right side with the pair linking to set up Louis D’Arrigo for Adelaide’s opener after just six minutes.
Goodwin, who’s back after a stint in Saudi Arabia, was lively all night and stole the show with a well-taken 77th minute winner, picking the pocket of Steve Ugarkovic before firing low and hard past Jack Duncan.
“I’ve said many times we know the qualities of Craig and again, he showed them tonight,” Veart said.
“That’s why I suppose we’re very fortunate and when he became available and there was a possibility, we jumped at it.
“He’s paying that back in dividends.”
The goal was Goodwin’s second in as many games and Veart is hoping that form continues when Tomi Juric returns to the line-up after the striker missed the last two games with injury.
(Photo by James Elsby/Getty Images)
Veart is relishing the prospect of Goodwin joining Juric and Ben Halloran in what could be a lethal strike force, with the trio all boasting Socceroos experience.
“We’re really looking forward to having Tomi, Craig and Ben playing together,” he said.
“He (Tomi) was very close tonight, but I’m looking forward to him starting next week and playing as a front three next week.”
The end-to-end game was often played at a frantic pace, with Veart acknowledging experience in the middle of the park would have helped his side control the match.
The Reds coach reckoned that help is on the way, though, pending permission for his mystery man to arrive into Australia.
“We’ve got someone – we just have to try get them in the country,” he said.
“It’s something that we’re missing, that little bit of experience in the middle of the park.”
Jets coach Craig Deans conceded the hosts deserved the win but lamented costly errors, which led to goals.
“We created a lot of problems for ourselves,” he said.
“Especially in the first half, we turned a lot of the ball over very cheaply, but again due to the pressure we were under.”
© AAP
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