Western United has set a new club record, winning its fourth A-League Men match in a row by defeating Adelaide United 1-0.
Team News
After missing last week’s victory over Brisbane Roar, Leo Lacroix returned to the side at centre-back in the only change to the starting XI.
The change brought about a slight change in structure, with Lacroix, Tomoki Imai and Nikolai Topor-Stanley forming a back three in position, but dropping into a four with Josh Risdon when out of possession.
First Half
United, as has been customary so far this season, started the match no the front foot with Connor Pain inches away from sliding in a tap-in at the back post.
Both sides had an even share of possession through the first 20 minutes without any meaningful openings, with neither goalkeeper forced into action.
Craig Goodwin came closest for Adelaide just past the half hour, fizzing a left-footed strike just over Jamie Young’s crossbar.
Dylan Wenzel-Halls went down in the box and the referee went over to the VAR monitor to have a look, but it was deemed no foul as he swung his boot to connect with a shot and collided with an Adelaide defender.
Pain broke the deadlock just before half-time, slotting his second goal in as many matches for United. After being played down the left-hand side by Lachie Wales, he showed great poise to cut inside and bury a strike into the bottom right corner.
Second Half
The Green and Black went immediately in search of a second goal, and Alessandro Diamanti nearly found it directly from a corner as James Delianov needed two bites at it to claim the ball.
A swift Adelaide counter-attack ended up with the ball in the back of the net, but the whistle had been blown for an earlier foul that spared United’s blushes.
Young was forced into a good save from Bernardo Oliveira, with the Adelaide attacker seeing his left-footed strike pushed away by United’s shot-stopper.
Despite the visitors’ best efforts to draw level and a few forays forward for United to grab a second, the scoreline remained unchanged, making history for this group of players as the first to win four straight matches for the Green and Black.
