Adelaide Blue Eagles threw their hat into the ring for a top two finish as they put four past West Torrens Birkalla in round 23 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.

Birkalla came into the round equal top with West Adelaide, but the loss has seen them fall to fourth place, behind Blue Eagles on goal difference.

Despite winning in such dominating fashion, Blue Eagles captain Chris Annicchiarico maintained that the side would continue to take it one game at a time.

“Heading into the final few weeks we’re very much looking to cement our spot in the top two.

“Obviously there’s quite a bit of congestion up top and competition for those top two spots are highly sought after, so we’re really only looking to take it one week at a time because we know if we win the final few games we’ll be in with a good chance.”

Annicchiarico admitted that Blue Eagles had hit a down patch over the recent month, but said the win was huge in terms of the mental aspect.

“We’ve had a bit of a tough time over the last month or so, so it was good to perform like we did yesterday; get a few goals under our belt and keep a clean sheet, so that’s going to boost our confidence heading into the last few rounds and finals.”

Birkalla have now had 3 losses out of 4 game, leaving Scott Nagel hugely disappointed.

“It’s 3 losses in the last 4 weeks now which isn’t a good sign, Blue Eagles are now behind on goal difference so we’ve gone from top of the ladder to fourth in one week.

“I’m disappointed performance wise as well, we didn’t play too bad and we had patches were we played well, but at the end of the day Blue Eagles deserved the win.

Key players Jordan Watson and Ryan Kitto were missing for Birkalla, but Nagel believed that their inclusion wouldn’t have made much of an impact on the final result.

“It would have been good if we had them yesterday, but Blue Eagles out played us and were more dominant on the park and I think even if those couple of player were in the team it would have been the same result.
“Blue Eagles were more clinical and put a lot of pressure up front, so I give them credit; they fully deserved it and it’s just a shame for us.

“We just need to look at the game, reflect on what we can do better and get in form for finals.”
The game was fairly evenly matched in the opening stages, with two of the competitions premier midfield units battling it out for dominance, but once Jean-Glaude Boyokino opened the scoring on 15 minutes the game clearly swung in Blue Eagles favour.

Kym Harris and Andrej Rastovac played a big part in the opener, as the strike partners worked a nice one-two on the edge of the box, sending Harris through into the 18-yard-box. Harris laid it off for Boyokino at the penalty spot, the winger making no mistakes.

Blue Eagles worked a number of promising chances in the minutes after the opener, but lacked the finishing touches to see them off.

Kym Harris doubled the hosts lead from the penalty spot after he was brought down inside the box. The striker quickly latched onto a poor back pass, leaving John-Paul Cirilo with no time to pull out of the challenge.
Alemayo Kebede all but sealed the three points in the second minute of first half injury time, as his shot from outside the box took a deflection into the back of the net for Blue Eagles third.
Boyokino capped off proceedings with his second of the game with an easy finish at the near post.