Adelaide Comets returned to winning ways after last week’s heavy defeat to Adelaide City with a 2-1 win over struggling White City in Round 11 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia at Frank Mitchell Park on Saturday night.

The Comets were responsible for all three goals with Vasilis Carapanayiotis and Jack Bladen on target for the visitors, whilst Zachary Hristodoulopoulos scored at the wrong end to put White City on the scoreboard.

 For the Comets’ David Makridis, the win was a morale boost for the team. 

“It was an important win for us because we’ve been struggling lately,” he said.

“We had a very bad performance last week.

“When we came into the game, it was a must win for us because we were playing a team that’s struggling as well.

“And to come out with a win was very good and important for us.”

The match started out lively despite the cold and wet conditions with both sides creating opportunities in the first 20 minutes of play.

White City striker Julia Abadia narrowly missed the goal in the ninth minute, whilst the Comets had a penalty claim denied when the ball struck the arm of a White City player from very close range.

The home side should’ve taken the lead in the 19^th minute, when a White City player missed the open goal from the edge of box after a poor clearance by the Comets keeper landed at his feet.

White City would come to regret that missed opportunity, when Carapanayiotis finished off a neat through ball from the right wing to hand the Comets the lead in the 39^th minute.

The Comets would continue to be the stronger of the two sides in the second half with the visitors controlling the majority of the play.

Struggling to create any real opportunities, White City began to play more aggressively, which came to show in the 60^th minute when a White City player and the Comets keeper clashed heads during a rare moment when the home side managed to get a cross in.

Seven minutes later, Jack Bladen converted a penalty to double the lead and stop any momentum that White City was gaining after John Karatzas was brought down in the box. 

In the 83^rd minute, a rare White City through ball made its way to substitute Hermann Fombason, who put Hristodoulopoulos under enough pressure to cause him to push the ball into his own net.

However, the Comets held on to claim all three points to remain in 8^th place, whilst White City slipped to 13^th place on the ladder with only one win to their name.

Article by Christopher Munker