Saturday, 27 February 2021:
 | | CRAIG GOODWIN of Adelaide United. | |
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Former Socceroo Craig Goodwin has made an immediate impact on Adelaide United, who survived a furious late charge from Western Sydney to end their A-League away drought.
The 3-2 win at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday lifted Adelaide level on points with fourth-placed Wanderers, who have a better goal difference.
Adelaide were 2-0 and 3-1 up but hung on at the end, with Wanderers' substitute Mitchell Duke scoring from close range in the 90th minute and hitting the post in added time.
It was Adelaide's first A-League win in seven interstate games stretching back to last July and ended the Wanderers' seven-match unbeaten run.
Back with Adelaide after a stint in Saudi Arabia, Goodwin lashed the ball home just over a minute into the match.
"He (Goodwin) has quality and you can see that not just from the goal in the first minute, just his touches in and around the park, he brings other players into the game," Adelaide coach Carl Veart said.
The goal came after Wanderers failed to clear a Goodwin corner, increasing their league-worst tally of goals conceded from set pieces to eight.
Goodwin had a shot saved by Daniel Margush, but combined with Ben Halloran to set up a 44th minute goal for Adelaide captain Stefan Mauk in his 100th A-League game.
Wanderers' coach Carl Robinson made three substitutions in the 57th minute, as he sought to improve his club's declining fortunes and it had an almost instantaneous affect.
On the hour substitute Bruce Kamau drifted between Noah Smith and goalkeeper James Delianov to tap a perfect cross from Daniel Wilmering in from close range.
But it was two Adelaide substitutes who appeared to have settled the issue with a cool finish from 16-year-old Mohamed Toure, who clinically rounded off a superb counter attack and a perfectly-weighted pass from Pacifique Niyongabire.
"He's got a very calm head on his shoulders for a young kid, he's very good with his finishing. He takes his time and thinks about it," Veart said of highly-rated Toure.
"It was very important just to get that belief in the boys that we can do it away from home."
An end-to-end match produced 40 shots, 26 of them from the Wanderers, who only had one more effort on target.
Wanderers won the corner count 19-0 but Robinson lamented their inability to capitalise and some "schoolboy defending".
"I thought we were lazy with our defending, I thought we were lacklustre," Robinson said.
"With the goals today there's three or four players that made wrong decisions and no one took leadership and accountability within the penalty box."
Ziggy Gordon had a first half header brilliantly saved by Delianov, who thwarted Duke in a one-on-one situation with the score at 2-1, and also pulled off a couple of other important stops.
"You can see every game he (Delianov) is getting better, some of the saves he made tonight were first class," Veart said.
