Adelaide Comets put South Adelaide to the sword in Round 1 of the Westfield FFA Cup qualifying competition, winning 8-2 at SA Athletics Stadium last Saturday.

Off-season signings Christopher Pepe and Andreas Wiens - both arrived from Croydon Kings - scored braces, whilst Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Jack Bladen, Eli Qioin El Wali and Yianni Nestoras etched their names onto the scoreboard as well.

Jonathan Rideout and Sam Carmichael netted for the Panthers.

Comets dominated proceedings from the outset with the home side pressing the opposition high and early.

And the high pressing almost paid off as early as the tenth minute, but the goal was disallowed due to obstruction on South Adelaide goalkeeper, Addison Rodgers.

Rodgers denied an Allan Welsh attempt on goal in the 17^th minute, but there was little the Panthers keeper could do in the 26^th minute, when Wiens got on the end of a turnover to slot the ball past the South Adelaide shot-stopper.

The lead was doubled a minute later with Pepe receiving the ball on the far left-hand side and beating Rodgers with an audacious chip from well outside the 16 yard box into the top right-hand corner.

Pepe got his brace three minutes later with the playmaker drilling the ball past Rodgers into the bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the box.

The Panthers cut the deficit to two goals, when Sullivan collected a loose ball from midfield to defeat Comets keeper John Solari with a chip of his own.

However, the home side restored the three goal lead in the 43^rd minute with Wiens finishing off a swift right wing attack with a first time shot.

Comets increased their lead to four goals a minute before halftime with Stamatelopoulos’ initial shot saved by Rodgers, but rebounding of a defender into the goal.

The second half started slow with both teams having made numerous changes.

The first real threat of the second half arrived in the 60^th minute through a corner with the visitors striking the post twice in a matter of seconds.

The home side replied with a goal eight minutes later with Bladen finishing off a neat combination play with Wiens.

Sullivan made a cosmetic adjustment when he scored his second of the match in the 75^th minute, but El Wali and Nestoras scored in the 84^th and 89^th minute respectively to seal off an emphatic win.

Comets reserve goalkeeper Alex Woodlands was very much pleased about his teams’ resounding 8-2 win.

“I thought it was a much better team performance than it was last week (in the league),” Woodlands said.

“Because last week was a bit scrappy, but we definitely moved the ball better this week and looked a lot more fluid, which everyone would be happy with.”

On the other hand, South Adelaide assistant coach Tom Monsigneur was obviously unhappy with the result.

“It was very disappointing to the week’s before effort (2-0 win against West Torrens),” Monsigneur said.

“It was pretty disappointing in the end, I guess.”

Monsigneur said that his team was still eager to fight on after halftime, when the score stood 5-1.

“We still wanted to have a go,” he said.

 “…Stranger things have happened in cup games, which we all have been involved in.

“We already had one and maybe put a bit of extra pressure on.

“We knew they had a couple of injuries and they were making a few subs, so we knew if we could put a bit of pressure on and maybe score one early, we might have been able to grab something out of it.

“… We just thought we’re going to have a go at it.”

Written by Christopher Munker