United down Reds, keep final’s hope alive

A POST-season spot for Western United’s ALM side is still a possibility following the Green and Black’s key 1-0 victory over Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Sunday.

The loss was the Reds’ first defeat in 12 matches with Connor Pain scoring for Western in the dying stages of the first half.

Adelaide pushed hard for an equaliser following the interval but a resolute performance from the visitors ensured they held on for maximum points.

The Reds struck the upright in injury time with Lachie Barr powering a header on to the post off a Craig Goodwin corner.

Western coach John Aloisi was delighted with the victory which moves his side to within three points of sixth-placed Sydney FC.

Aloisi conceded, while possible, securing a finals berth will be difficult with Western needing to win both their remaining fixtures and hope other results fall their way.

“We are thinking that will be the way forward,” he said. “We have to play Melbourne City this week, who knows how they’ll be feeling after their result (winning the minor premiership),” he said.

“We can’t worry about that, we have to worry about ourselves and try and win that game and then we go to Perth and you don’t know, Perth might still be alive.

“There’s still teams there fighting for the top six.”

Despite the defeat, Adelaide United’s coach Carl Veart was heartened by the Reds’ performance.

“Sometimes you win when you shouldn’t win and you lose games when you should win them,” he said.

“We still created some excellent opportunities tonight. They [Western United] had a couple of opportunities on the break, but I thought we dealt that.

“And it was just one of those nights where it wasn’t going to go in the net for us, but we kept trying.

“That’s the pleasing thing. We kept pushing and on another night the ball would’ve hit the post and gone in.

“I can’t fault the players, they gave everything they could and it was just one of those nights.”

The result gifted Melbourne City the minor premiership, a record third in a row, while Adelaide is now just three points clear of third-placed Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers with two games to play.

– BY LEE GAGLIARDI/ AAP