Mark Milligan’s Victory Call

Adelaide United head coach, Carl Veart, was quick to mention that longtime assistant, Mark Milligan, and himself had not held any discussions around Milligan going to take over as head coach at Melbourne Victory. 

“I know there’s been lots of talk, [externally] there was lots of talk at the beginning of the season as well,” Veart began.     

“Mark is an excellent coach, he’ll make a great head coach, if that time is now, then we would wish him all the best. He’s done a lot of work here with the club.  I hope for him to stay here, but if it does come, I’d be happy for him.”

Elsewhere, Adelaide had a 3-1 lead at the 88th minute against Sydney FC. With all going well, it looked impossible that the Reds would slip up against the Blues. However, a mistake from James Delianov saw Sydney’s pulse return, before the last touch of the game saw an equaliser.       

“It’s very disappointing, to put that work in and let it slip in that last few minutes,” Veart said. 

“We have to close those games out, we can’t allow that to happen.” 

Earlier in the night, talented Adelaide United junior and current Bayern Munich winger Nestory Irankunda went onto Australia’s A-League broadcaster, Paramount Plus, and said he would leave Bayern on loan. 

When asked if there was any chance of Irankunda coming back to play at Hindmarsh, Veart simply said; “We don’t speak German here, so I would say no.”

With there seemingly no chance of an Irankunda return, Adelaide United will have to turn to its younger generation again. Yaya Dukuly, was incredible in the fifteen minutes he was given at the end of the match and could be a replacement option moving forward.   

“He, [Dukuly] had three or four really good actions that we just didn’t finish.  He got in behind and picked out a couple of players,” Veart said, underlining the disappointment in relation to his team’s inability to finish chances.     

In terms of the league as a whole, Adelaide United and Auckland FC are the only teams so fair to remain undefeated so far. 

“We’ve worked extremely hard this pre-season.  We’ve brought some really good quality players into the group,” Veart said.   

“We’ve had some really good performances, and the players have got that belief now.  We’ve got that belief now.”  

That belief will be on show when Adelaide United are back after Christmas at Hindmarsh Stadium to take on the Western Sydney Wanderers.