Adelaide United coach Carl Veart has implored the Reds not to repeat the same mistakes which saw his side cough up a commanding 3-1 lead in the 88th minute and let Sydney FC battle back for a 3-3 draw.
United had been in the box seat in Friday's A-League Men clash after opening the scoring on five minutes through Archie Goodwin.
Sydney’s Brazilian star Douglas Costa equalised just after the quarter hour before Stefan Mauk found the net on 25 minutes to restore the Reds lead.
Goodwin made it 3-1 early in the second half, but with just minutes on the clock, Costa bent in his second on 89 minutes.
Five minutes into stoppage time, Costa was involved again, this time whipping in a corner which was met by Jordan Courtney-Perkins who nodded home from three metres out
Veart felt United got too comfortable and sat back, failing to kill off the contest and inviting pressure from the visitors.
“We maybe tried to hold onto the game instead of keep going, so, yeah, a little bit disappointed,” he said.
“Keep attacking, keep pushing, keep our defensive line higher -- but we just dropped off and tried to protect.
“It’s something that we have to be better at. Those two late goals are very easily preventable if we’re a little bit better as a defensive unit.”
Despite dropping two points, United remain undefeated after eight games this season with five wins and three draws.
The Reds are also the highest-scoring team in the competition with 20 goals, three clear of Sydney.
Veart applauded his side’s efforts and acknowledged the Reds’ current record is deserved, but urged Adelaide not to rest on their laurels.
“We’ve worked extremely hard this pre-season, we’ve brought some good quality players into the group,” he said.
“We’ve had some really good performances and the players have got that belief now.
“But we’ve still got a long way to go to be there at the end of the season. We have to learn from these lessons that we’ve got today if we want to be pushing for that silverware at the end of the season.”
Sydney coach Ufuk Talay was full of praise for the veteran Costa, who was instrumental in the visitors’ fightback.
The 34-year-old former Juventus and Bayern Munich attacker may no longer be tearing down the wings with gut-busting runs, but he still stole the show with his silky skills in a classy man-of-the-match performance.
“He’s an influential player for us, but I think he’s also great for the league and the competition itself,” said Veart.
“I’m sure he’ll be very pleased. He’s coming back from injury and we’re trying to continue to build him up and I thought he did very well tonight.”
