Adelaide United coach Airton Andrioli has highlighted the importance of the Reds' 2-0 A-League Men's win over Western Sydney Wanderers after suffering back-to-back losses.
After a tense first-half, goals to Luka Jovanovic in the 63rd minute and then Craig Goodwin five minutes later helped the Reds return to the winner's circle and halt the run of defeats.
United had opened their campaign -- and the Andrioli era -- with an impressive 2-1 victory over Sydney FC on the opening day of the season, but within the space of six days, were then defeated by Macarthur FC and Auckland FC despte producing some solid football.
Andrioli said the victory over Wanderers was reward for those strong performances and was crucial in building confidence.
"We spoke with the players before the game and said that we had been playing well," he said.
"The first game we had a good result and the next two games we performed well, but tonight was about getting this result, getting the win.
"Because that is really what builds confidence and belief in what you are doing. We said 'we need to reward ourselves, make sure our good performances translate into winning a game and I think we did that well tonight."
Andrioli reserved special praise for Jovanovic. The young striker broke the deadlock with an expert finish, burying a half-volley on the turn, before setting up Goodwin just five minutes later.
"I'm very happy for Luka," he said. "As a striker, you need to score goals and the fact that he scored last week gave him that belief again that he can do that because he's a very good finisher.
"Actually in that moment when he scored the goal, he hadn't been involved in many things, he was a little bit quiet, but I had a feeling that with his capabilities around the edge of the box, one of those balls would drop close to him so he could finish it.
"Not just that, he also provided an assist after that so I'm really pleased with his game tonight. He's done well, and I hope he continues."
Wanderers coach Alen Stajcic was left to lament wasted opportunities from his side.
Bozhidar Kraev should have done better from a one-on-one against United keeper Joshua Smits on the quarter-hour before Alou Kuol hit the post on the hour, minutes before Adelaide opened the scoring.
"I thought we should've been two or three-nil up at halftime," he said. "It's sort of the story so far of our season. We haven't executed when we've been on top and we had some good passages of play where we needed to score and have that little bit of momentum in the game, but we didn't."
