Adelaide United’s Nathan Konstandopoulos targets home form improvement in finals bid

ADELAIDE United midfielder Nathan Konstandopoulos says the Reds must turn around their home-game woes if they are to secure an A-League finals berth, following just one win in their past five Hindmarsh Stadium matches.

NATHAN Konstandopoulos says Adelaide United must turn around its home-game woes if it is to secure an A-League finals berth.

The Reds midfielder returned to the starting XI for the first time in nearly two months for last Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Melbourne City at Hindmarsh Stadium.

But the stalemate extended United’s puzzling run of just one victory from its past five clashes on its own turf.

Konstandopoulos said Adelaide needed to rediscover its Hindmarsh form in its final two regular season home fixtures to seal a top-six place.

“It’s massive,” said Konstandopoulos, of hosting Newcastle Jets on Friday night and Wellington Phoenix seven days later. “All the players know how important these two games are. It’s surprising because we’ve put in some good home performances, but I definitely think we can turn that stat around.

“The boss (Marco Kurz) always says ‘this is our house, this is our home’ and we’ve got to make sure that we play the best in front our fans.

“I feel like we can get all six points from those two games and we’re very confident we’re going to be playing finals.”

United has won just three of its 11 home matches this campaign to sit fifth, two points clear of seventh-placed Brisbane Roar with four matches remaining.

Nathan Konstandopoulos returned to Adelaide United’s starting XI for the Reds’ 1-1 draw with Melbourne City. Picture: Sarah Reed

It fell to a lacklustre 1-2 defeat to the Jets at Hindmarsh in November, before going down by the same scoreline thanks to a dubious penalty in the Hunter a month later.

Konstandopoulos said his team-mates were hungry for revenge over the second-ranked Newcastle as they looked to close the gap on the top four.

“They (Jets) have had a fantastic season,” Konstandopoulos, 21, said.

“But in both games we feel like we’ve had the opportunities to take all three points. We use that as confidence for this week. We’ve done it before, so we can definitely do it again.”

Konstandopoulos produced a typically industrious display against City and teed up Johan Absalonsen for his first-half goal. The former Brisbane youngster hoped to have done enough to retain his spot for the Reds’ run in.

“We’ve got a lot of quality in my position,” said Konstandopoulos, who has made 18 appearances this season.

“But it’s great that we have competition for our spots because it makes every training competitive and every game we know we have to perform.

“It’s awesome to be back in the 11 and I’m just hoping I can keep doing everything for the team.”