Adelaide comfortably beat Heart

Adelaide United returned to winning ways with a perfect snatch and grab 2-0 victory against a tired Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park on Friday night.

An opportunist header from Robbie Cornthwaite after some poor Heart defending and a Marcos Flores toe poke was enough to give Rini Coolen’s reds two goals and a win to move two points behind league leaders Brisbane Roar.

Adelaide was back to defending in their customary tight and physical fashion and was clinical on the counter attack with Cassio, Flores, Iain Ramsay and Joe Keenan all playing well for the away side.

The Heart’s players looked jaded as they struggled in their transition of play, failing to link passes between defence and midfield.

Rini Coolen obviously did his homework on the Heart as he organised his Adelaide troops to sit deep and stifle Josip Skoko and co to perfection.

The first half was a physical and tightly contested battle with Adelaide really taking the game to the home side early.

It took just five minutes for an unmarked Robbie Cornthwaite to open the scoring for Adelaide when he glided in a free header from a Cassio free kick, though there was some controversy surrounding the blowing of the referee’s whistle before the kick was taken.

Adelaide created the better chances of the half with Cassio causing some major headaches for the Heart's defenders with some pin-point crosses into the box.

The Heart fought their way back into the match in the second half, Gerald Sibon spurning a glorious headed chance under physical pressure from an Adelaide defender just after half time.

Flores just beat Clint Bolton to the punch to score a toe poke after the ball rebounded off the crossbar and into his path from an audacious chip from lively substitute, Iain Ramsay, giving Adelaide a 2-0 lead after 72 minutes of play.

Sibon came close to grabbing a goal back immediately for the Heart when he hit the post with a swirling free kick in the 74th minute, Eugene Galekovic doing just enough to clear the rebound out for a corner.

John van’t Schip tried to pull his side back into the match, emptying his bench in an attempt to spark the attack of a Heart side devoid of much creativity going forward.

Ultimately all was in vain for the Heart as Adelaide ran out comfortable and deserved winners.