Coach Carl Veart says Adelaide United will need to sharpen up if they are to have an impact in the A-League Men finals following a 2-0 victory over Perth Glory on Sunday night.
While finals football is still not guaranteed, and with two home games remaining, United are sitting fourth, four points clear of the sixth-placed Central Coast, with the Mariners having a game in hand.
Veart conceded the Reds were not at their best against the struggling Glory with Adelaide entering the clash on the back of a 12-day break.
"We're a very proud club that wants to play finals football and once you get to finals it's best team on the day," he said.
"And on our day we're more than capable of beating anyone so that's what our goal is - to go in to finals, but we want to go into finals with good form.
"So that means the next two home games we need to put in a lot better performance than what we did tonight."
Adelaide opened the scoring against last-placed Perth after 24 minutes with a goal from Bernardo before enjoying a host of chances which they failed to take advantage of.
Perth had a goal disallowed on 72 minutes before spurning a glorious opportunity to equalise in injury time.
Less than a minute later, Adelaide substitute Nestory Irakunda sealed the win with a spectacular shot, picking out the top corner and leaving goalkeeper Liam Reddy no chance to save.
Veart heaped praise on the talented teenager, who was busy following his introduction but had struggled to make an impact before his goal due to questionable decision making .
"Everything he did before that goal was most probably wrong," Veart quipped.
"But that's the beauty of him because what he did with the goal, he has that - it's a very rare commodity to have what he has.
"It's just a matter of remembering he's still only 15 and that we just have to let him go out and have fun."
Despite the result, interim Glory coach Ruben Zadkovich applauded his team's performance.
Ravaged with injuries, the predominantly youth side had recently endured a packed schedule with three games in six days, including two away trips either side of a home fixture.
Zadkovich said Perth had significantly benefited from the full week of training leading into the clash with Adelaide.
"I'm extremely proud of their effort and the way they went about their business tonight,," he said.
"I definitely think the week helps us, we could work on some defensive principles and our shape and I thought the young guys applied them really well.
"If you're on the road, playing a game every three days against A-League quality opposition with a youth team, then those extra three sessions really do help.
"We were barely getting one session in, in between those games."
