Another classy finish and match-winning cameo from Adelaide United wunderkind Mohamed Toure is not enough to persuade coach Carl Veart to give the 16-year-old striker a regular A-League starting spot.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Toure came off the bench to put Adelaide 3-1 up in Saturday's clash against Western Sydney at Bankwest stadium.
The highly rated teenager raced onto a through ball from Pacifique Niyongabire and calmly slipped the ball past Wanderers' goalkeeper Daniel Margush with eight minutes left on the clock.
It proved the decisive goal as Wanderers pulled one back before the end.
Toure scored with an equally composed finish in a 1-0 home win over Melbourne Victory in January and also netted in the 5-3 away victory in Perth.
He is Adelaide's joint-second highest scorer behind the injured Tomi Juric, despite starting just twice and coming off the bench seven times.
"He will get bits and pieces throughout the season, we'll look to give him 20, 30 minutes nearly every game just to keep building that confidence and belief in himself and he's learning," Veart said of Toure, who turns 17 on March 26.
"He doesn't have that fitness to play 90 minutes at this level because the A-League is a very fast-paced game.
"His strength is his speed. When you can run over 36 kilometres an hour it takes you a while to recover from that, so he needs to develop that, which will take time."
While Toure is just starting his journey, two vastly more experienced players who can expect increasing minutes in coming weeks are Adelaide's Craig Goodwin and the Wanderers' Mitchell Duke.
The two Socceroos recently returned from Saudi Arabia and each got on the scoresheet in Saturday's game and had chances to add more.
Goodwin, in his first game back in the A-League, scored after little more than 60 seconds and had another attempt saved before being replaced by Toure in the 72nd minute.
Duke, in his second appearance off the bench, netted in the 90th minute and hit the post just before the end.
Adelaide host Newcastle next Friday, while Wanderers have a shorter turnaround, with Melbourne City visiting them on Tuesday.
"There will be some fresh legs in the game on Tuesday, we know it's a difficult week for us," Wanderers' coach Carl Robinson said.
Australian Associated Press
