Adelaide Comets scored a resounding 5-1 win over Campbelltown City in Round 20 of the South Australia National Premier League to consolidate their spot in the top six.

Comets remain in fifth position with a game in hand, five points behind fourth-placed West Adelaide, while Campbelltown slip to seventh, two points below Adelaide City.

Davide Zerillo opened the scoring for Comets in the 32nd minute, but Campbelltown star forward Michael Matricciani equalized in the 55th minute.

However, Campbelltown were dealt a massive blow when they were reduced to 10 men two minutes after Matricciani’s leveller.

Zerillo got his second in the 63rd minute to put Comets ahead and Chris Christofilos made it 3-1 just one minute later.

Samuel Tesfagabr and Elias Demourtzidis rounded off the rout in the dying stages to add to Campbelltown’s misery.

Comets coach Jim Karatzas said his team started slowly, but grew as the game went on.
“We’ve been working on slowly improving our fitness and ball playing, and it’s all starting to come together. We’ve had a few ins and outs over the last few weeks, so hopefully we’ll be getting most of our players back,” Karatzas said.

“On Saturday, we started slowly, we could have quite easily been behind in the first 15-20 minutes, but we went on to score.

“I thought Campbelltown could have scored one or two in the first half. After that, we went from strength to strength, but the send-off helped us ofcourse.”

Comets will face Raiders in their Round 19 catch-up game on Tuesday night, before turning their attention to a blockbuster clash with West Adelaide on Sunday.

Karatzas said his side will have a light training to prepare for Tuesday’s match.

“We can’t really do too much until Tuesday night because it was a tough game on Saturday, so it will be a very light training on Monday night, then we will have to change our training program this week to prepare for the Sunday game.

“Every game is vital. On a given day, anybody can beat anybody in this league. If you’re not well-prepared and if you’re not focused, and if you start slowly, you’re down a couple goals early, then you can’t get back.

“It’s just one of those leagues where you’ve got to be on your game week in week out. You’ve got to prepare identically each week and have the same routine, if you don’t, you will lose no matter who you are playing.”

Campbelltown youngster Luigi Ditroia rued his side’s missed opportunities in the first half.

“I thought first half we were very good. It was probably one of the best halves we have played all year, but we conceded a scrappy goal, but we didn’t drop our heads, we kept on playing and we were creating chances, but we just couldn’t put it in the back of the net,” Ditroia said.

“We got the equalizer, but unfortunately we were sent down to 10 men, and I think things just fell apart from there. They scored straight after the send-off and we tried to press on for an equalizer, but they caught us on the break.

“I think we just need to keep working hard and keep our heads up. I’m sure the results will start coming our way if we keep putting in the hard yards at training like we have been.”
Campbelltown host relegation battlers Para Hills in Round 21, which Ditroia labelled as a must-win clash.

“If we take anything less than three points, we’re in a lot of trouble. We need to take maximum points from Para Hills; they’ll be looking for a win because they are coming off a loss against Raiders.

“We’re expecting a fight, they are always a tough team to play, but we’re going to go in like any other day and hopefully we’ll get the win.”