Adelaide Blue Eagles progressed through to the grand final of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia in style with a 4-1 win over League Winners West Adelaide.

The result of the second leg saw Blue Eagles progressing on a 5-2 aggregate, with goals courtesy of Kym Harris, Alemayo Kebede and Matthew Charalambous.

Blue Eagles captain Chris Annicchiarico was proud of the team’s performance, but said there was still work to do in the lead up to the grand final.

“It was a big result for us on Sunday; we were wrapped with the way we played and obviously we booked our spot in the grand final in a couple of week’s time.

“West Adelaide are a top class unit, very dangerous going forward and they’re solid at the back but we were wrapped with the performance and are very much looking forward to the grand final now.

“We’ll look to work hard over the next few weeks and prepare as best we can.”

Defender Robby Lippett was one of a number of key players who picked up injuries over the weekend for West Adelaide, which lead him to believe that a combination of over exposure at the back and throwing caution to the wind in chasing the win ultimately proved to be their downfall; but added that the side would now fully turn their attention towards West Torrens Birkalla in their second chance at glory.

“Unfortunately I did take a big knock to the head and was knocked to unconscious, but from what I hear it was due to a couple of injuries within the team to some key players and that left us a bit exposed at the back in chasing that win.

“This week coming is huge for both clubs, we have a bit of a rivalry as well with a controversial game at the start of the year so I know they’re going to be hungry for revenge and we’re hungry to get that last spot in the grand final.”

Annicchiarico maintained all through the regular season that Blue Eagles would keep their feet firmly grounded and take it one game at a time, but said the side was confident in fulfilling their goal.

“We wouldn’t be here unless we deserved to so we’re confident in our ability and are looking forward to the grand final.

“It’s going to be a very tough game no matter who we end up playing, but we are very much confident.”

Lippett said that losing in the way that they did has provided the blue and whites with added motivation to avenge their loss, and maintained that the side was still confident in taking out the double.

“We know we are a great team and obviously we can’t play ridiculously well every week, we know we are the best team in the league football wise.

“We need to have a good week on the track and put last week behind us and make sure it doesn’t happen again; I know the boys are hungry to get revenge on Blue Eagles but we have another hurdle to get over.

“We knew from day one that we wanted to do the double; to win the league was our number one priority and we did that, and now our eyes are on that top prize.

“We set the bar high all year and we have a job to do now.”

The first half started as expected, with both teams firmly locked in an arm wrestle for dominance though plenty of chances were on offer.

Blue Eagles livewire Yvan Boyokino was causing plenty of headaches down the left wing while Pedram Sourjani picked up where he left off in the first leg, thwarting everything West Adelaide threw at him.

Alex Rideout looked hungry for the home side towards the back end of the first half and the opening stages of the second, but the Blue Eagles defence stood firm.

The breakthrough finally came on 65 minutes after subsititue Charalambous was brought down inside the box, with Kym Harris stepping up to the spot and sending keeper Daniel Atkins the wrong way.

Nathan Andijanto drew the home side level some 8 minutes later with a neat finish on a tight angle after being played through by John Karatzas, but it was cancelled out almost instantly by Kebede.

Kebede sized up his options on the edge of the 18 yard box, took a slight step to his right before firing low into the bottom corner.

From there the flood gates opened, with Harris grabbing his second with a peach of a free kick on 80 minutes and Chalambouras wrapping things up in stoppage time.

Article by Brendan Simpkins