West Adelaide jumped to equal second after a come-from-behind win over Raiders in round 3 of the South Australian Playstation4 National Premier League.

Yamin Jamal opened the scoring for the home side from the penalty spot, while second half goals from Tom Briscoe and Nathan Andijanto put West Adelaide in front. The visitors managed to hold on for the win, despite going down to ten men after Ricardo Da Silva was sent off in the final minutes.

West Adelaide head coach Paul Pezos said he was happy with his teams overall performance, despite going a goal down early on in the contest.

“Throughout the whole game we were playing quite well although we were down with a penalty,” he said.

“But we controlled possession quite well, we just weren’t aggressive enough in our final third.

“In the second half, I think we dominated. We went to ten men and still kept disciplined, and obviously came away with the win.”

On the other side of the coin, Raiders coach Carl Maynard was disappointed that his side came away with nothing after taking the lead early on.

“We are disappointed,” Maynard stated,

“We thought we had enough of the game to get a result, but that’s why West Adelaide are a good team because when the momentum changed that’s when they punished us.

“The performance wasn’t too bad, but we need to get something out of games like that when we have done well enough to get a result.”

Both sides opened the first half struggling to break each other down, with most of the action in the early stages coming from the middle of the park.

Elvis Kamsoba became the architect for Raiders, as his pace and trickery got him into acres of space on the right wing and provided the home side with an abundance of chances once the game started to become more open.

The opening goal for the home side came of the back of a well worked opportunity by Kamsoba, as he cracked a stinging volley from the corner of the 18 yard box that forced West Adelaide keeper Lewis Moss to palm it away.

Jamal picked up the rebound, put was brought down for a penalty after he appeared to have his shirt pulled. Jamal stepped up and calmly slotted into the bottom corner.

West Adelaide saw plenty of the ball heading into half time, but failed to create any clear cut chances, as their best efforts came from long range shots courtesy of Ricardo Da Silva and Johnny Koutroumbis that didn’t trouble keeper Deale Chamberlain.

Da Silva was the difference for the visitors after the break, as he set up both goals in the comeback.

The equalizer eventually came for West Adelaide midway through the second period, after Da Silva worked his way down the right of the 18 yard box, only to cut it back for Andijanto who finished with a simple tap in.

Briscoe grabbed his fourth of the season, after he leaped higher than the rest to head home a cross from Da silva to give his side the lead and cap off the turnaround.

Da Silva’s afternoon unfortunately ended on a sour note, as he was shown a straight red for what appeared to be a stomp on West Adelaide substitute Paul Karittevlis.

Pezos said an increase in intensity and a change of formation was the difference in his side coming away the win, but was disappointed to see Da Silva miss out on next rounds encounter with Adelaide City.

“There was a bit more intensity and we were a bit more ruthless in the final third,” he said.

“We changed our formation so we could press them a bit more and we were successful.

“Ricardo’s a big loss, but in saying that, that’s what we have a squad for. It’s someone’s opportunity now to step up and take that position.”

For Raiders, their attention now turns to Para Hills in round four.

“I’ve told the players that that’s football,” Said Maynard.

“We have to come in tomorrow afternoon and get on with it. It wasn’t a bad performance, we just have to cut out the mistakes.

“If we can do that, we’ll pick up the points for next week.”

Article by Brendan Simpkins