Adelaide United increased its lead at the top of the A-League table to 10 points with another workmanlike performance against a miss-firing Melbourne Victory.
Adelaide went into the game full of confidence after crushing Queensland Roar on the weekend while Melbourne has lost five of its last eight games. Further Melbourne has played Adelaide five times and is yet to score a single goal. Regardless of form, Melbourne needed to put in a good performance and come away with at least a point to keep its top four aspirations alive.
Adelaide's largest crowd of the season turned up at Hindmarsh Stadium and were confronted with long queues lining up for the inadequate ticketing booths. Many fans opted to go home rather than endure the 30-minute plus wait in the queue to buy tickets. The official attendance of 13,427 is Adelaide's second highest attendance of the season (14,068 v Sydney FC) though it would have been in excess of 15,000 but for the ticketing queue.
Melbourne kicked off the game and almost grabbed an early goal in the 2nd minute. Adelaide's goalkeeper Bajic came out of his box to clear a wayward long ball from Melbourne but dawdled on the ball. Melbourne's Allsopp closed down Bajic and the goalkeeper clumsily kicked the ball into Allsopp with the rebound going just wide of the goals. It was a fortunate escape for the big goalkeeper. Bajic needs to cut these silly errors out of his game unless he wants to earn a reputation as the A-League equivalent of England's David "calamity" James.
Melbourne maintained the pressure on Adelaide in the opening minutes hitting long balls into its strikers. Allsopp was back in the action in the 6th minute with a powerful strike from a wide angle that flew over the Adelaide goal.
Melbourne continued to dominate the midfield while Adelaide defended solidly. The one concern for Melbourne was the manner in which it frequently gave up possession very cheaply with poor passing.
The first danger sign for Melbourne showed up in the 12th minute when Carl Veart stole the ball from a midfielder and was streaking his way goal wards. Unfortunately for Adelaide Veart was pulled up by referee Mark Shield for a debateable handball.
A minute later against the run of play Adelaide scored. Veart hit a decisive 15m pass into the space behind the Melbourne defence. Dodd ran through unchallenged with four Melbourne Victory players caught ball watching. Dodd made no mistake with only the keeper to beat. 1-0 to Adelaide.
Melbourne continued to push forward in search of an equaliser with the A-Leagues top scorer Archie Thompson troubling Adelaide's defence. In the 28th minute Melbourne's Kitzbichler picked up the ball from his goalkeeper, ran three quarters of the pitch before chipping a pass forward to striker Thompson. Thompson found himself in space and unleashed a powerful drive from just inside the box. Goalkeeper Bajic deflected the shot into the path of the onrushing Sarkies. But Sarkies effort from inside the penalty box was poorly hit straight into the arms of Bajic.
Adelaide made an early change with Brazilian Rech coming off with a hamstring problem and replaced by Brain.
Sarkies was back in the action two minutes later when he got on the end of a defensive header from Adelaide's Valkanis and drove a shot from 25m over the bar.
Archie Thompson should have levelled the score in the 35th minute when Sarkies chipped a ball behind the Adelaide defence. Thompson ran onto the ball, sold defender Costanzo a dummy before hitting his shot wide of the post from only five metres. It was another escape for Adelaide.
Melbourne's key playmaker Kitzbichler struggled on for five minutes with an apparent hamstring problem before Melbourne were forced to make an early change bringing on Lia.
Archie Thompson was unfortunate in the 44th minute when he was incorrectly flagged offside after Melbourne caught Adelaide very square at the back. The linesman continued his poor form a couple minutes later with another wrong offside call against a clearly onside Vlahos.
Melbourne finished the half on top on the field but one goal down on the scoreboard. Adelaide had scored from its only opportunity in the first 45 minutes while Melbourne had squandered at least three good opportunities.
The second half was more of the same from the start with Allsopp winning an early corner. Sarkies floated his corner to the front post and defender Costanzo deflected the ball towards his own goal. A brave Pantelis rushed off the goal line and put his body on the line to head the ball clear and took a kick to the head from a Melbourne boot in the process. It was Adelaide's turn to feel the wrath of poor offside decision when Aloisi sent Qu running goal wards in the 47th minute. While Aloisi was very slow to release the ball Qu was clearly onside when the ball was kicked. Next it was an on-side Pantelis that was incorrectly flagged offside in the 54th minute. All up it was four incorrect offside decisions from the same linesman in the period straddling the two halves.
At the other end of the pitch Adelaide increasingly pushed up and repeatedly caught Melbourne's frustrated strikers in offside positions.
With the game seeming set to drift in oblivion it suddenly sprung to life in the 70th minute. Pantelis, Adelaide's best player on the night, crossed the ball into the box to an unmarked Valkanis. Of all the players on the park to be gifted a free header in the box you would expect the ever reliable defender to score. But instead he completely missed the ball - a let-off for Melbourne.
A minute later Melbourne's Sarkies made some space for himself just inside the box and hit his shot just wide of the upright.
Another minute and it was Valkanis to the rescue. Melbourne broke down the flank and cross in a low ball. Valkanis was at full stretch when he nipped the ball off the feet of Melbourne's Lia just as he was about to unleash a shot from only 5 metres out.
Sarkies took the resulting corner and found Bajic in no-mans land in the middle of his box but Melbourne did not capitalise on the error.
Melbourne pushed and prodded a tiring Adelaide and created another good goal scoring opportunity in the 82nd minute. Big striker Allsopp got on the end of a cross and his powerful header flew just wide of the top corner of Adelaide's goal with Bajic well beaten.
In the last minute of normal time Melbourne grabbed a dubious corner and almost capitalised. The corner was headed down to Melbourne's Thompson who drove his shot into the side netting from only 3 metres out.
Mark Shields blew for full time after five minutes of added time. The result gave Adelaide its sixth win in a row.
Adelaide coach John Kosmina will be pleased to have grabbed all three points despite an ordinary performance by his side. It was Adelaide's second game in four days and tiredness may have been a key factor in the below par performance. Adelaide can take a lot of heart from the old adage that the difference between a good side and a great side is the ability to win games even when they do not play at their best. Ten points clear at the top of the A-League table there can be no argument that Adelaide is the best side in the country.
Melbourne coach Merrick will be bitterly disappointed with the result. His side created enough chances to win the game but the poor finishing cost his team three points. With Merrick's position rumoured to be on shaky ground it was a result that Merrick could ill afford.