‘Jet-lagged’ referee claim overshadows Adelaide's incredible 4-1 win with 10 men
Adelaide United coach Airton Andrioli has suggested referee Shaun Evans was suffering from jet lag after a controversial red card failed to stop his side's 4-1 win over Melbourne City.
Adelaide United coach Airton Andrioli suggested referee Shaun Evans may have been suffering from “jet lag” after the Reds defied being reduced to 10 men to beat Melbourne City 4-1 at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
Andrioli’s men recorded an emphatic win over the reigning champions despite having defender Dylan Pierias sent off in the first-half after he tangled legs with City’s Austrian midfielder Andreas Kuen.
“I think Shaun Evans is a fantastic referee,’’ Andrioli said.
“All I can say is that maybe he (Evans) was jet-lagged because he had a long trip away (to an Asian Football Confederation FIFA World Cup qualifier last week), and unfortunately, he didn’t have his best game.
“You can see the frustration from us and on the bench. The best thing is we won the game, and we don’t have to spend time talking about those things.
“It would have been worse if the game had gone a different way.
“The game was extremely tough mentally for our players.
“The character of the boys is something which is going to go a long way this season.”
City coach Aurelio Vidmar agreed with Andrioli, saying that he didn’t believe Pierias should have been expelled in the 41st minute.
“I didn’t think it was a red (card),’’ Vidmar said.
“The referee had a long time to look at the replay.”
While Vidmar was frustrated with his side‘s performance, claiming City wasn’t “competitive” and was “embarrassing”, Andrioli was extremely satisfied with the Reds’ performance.
Ethan Alagich got the show on the road with an opportunistic goal from a City error before Luke Jovanovic made it 2-0 after an assist from Yaya Dukuly.
City’s Takeshi Kanamori scored a top corner screamer just seconds after Pierias was expelled, before Ryan White became the super sub.
White scored Adelaide’s third goal in the 79th minute before playing an important part in Jay Barnett’s maiden A-League strike five minutes later.
“We believed in the resilience and the ability to defend the result,’’ Andrioli said.
“Credit to the boys, and I just want to focus on the positives.
“We want to have a team that adapts to circumstances and different types of situations. We didn‘t plan to use that (variation) with 10 men on the pitch, but when we talked about that at halftime, I was extremely confident.
“We defended well and got some chances in transition.
“The idea was to have two players on the outside (wing), Panashe (Madanha) and Yaya (Dukuly), and defending a little bit deeper across the midfield.”
Adelaide is back in action next Saturday against the Phoenix in Wellington, while City will seek redemption on Tuesday night in an AFC Champions League Elite clash against Malaysian club Johor Darul Ta’zim at AAMI Park.
