Adelaide put another nail in the coffin of Gold Coast's season, with a brilliant set piece from Dario Vidosic consigning Gold Coast to a 2-1 loss at Skilled Park.
Gold Coast, who are still without a win this year, are now 8 points a drift, and even with a game in hand, would be hard pressed to save this season.
Conversely, Adelaide picked up their first win of the year, and just keep in touch with the pack and possibility of finals football.
Gold Coast started strongly despite fielding for the most part what could be considered a youth league team. Bleiberg is in the midst of somewhat of an injury crisis, with 5 first team regulars not available, including their stand out of the season, James Brown.
But it was the youth combining with the more, shall we say, experienced, for the opening goal. Ben Halloran streaked past Levchencko on the left, leaving him in the dust and played a perfect cut back to Rigters.
The Dutchman struck the ball towards goal, which caught Nigel Boogaard's foot, deflecting it away from Galekovic and into the back of the net. The Gold Coast had the lead within 7 minutes.
But after that spritely start, the momentum slowly swung towards Adelaide. Neither team really bossed the midfield, but Adelaide looked more dangerous on the break.
With Vidosic playing number 10, Van Dijk in front, and Ramsay and Djite wider, the quality up front can be devastating, but it never really seems to click for Adelaide this year.
The combination between Ramsay and Cassio down the left was paying dividends for Adelaide. In the 18th minute, they had a brilliant chance to even the ledger when Ramsay found the space to whip a ball into the box, Djite met the ball unmarked right in front of goal, but managed to skew the ball wide off his shin.
The ex-Gold Coast man did however equalise, with only a few minutes to go in the half, Ramsay flicked the ball on for Cassio, who just got his foot round the ball on the byline. Djite was the second man and got his head to it, the ball just bouncing past O'Connor in the Gold Coast goal to take the teams into the sheds level.
A draw wouldn't do either team any good, just cutting both even further adrift from the main pack, so both teams came back with intent. And it was the home side with the first opportunity to grab the points.
In the 53rd minute, Golgol Mehbratu nicked the ball off Malik's heavy touch and set off down the centre of the park. The covering defender, Levchenko, was again well beaten for pace by the young striker who just inside the area opened his body up and struck the ball low.
Galekovic, somehow, dove low and smacked the ball into the turf, which then bounced high and hit the crossbar, and bounced safely back into the Adelaide captain's hands. Cracking stuff by both players. Mehbratu did have Halloran in support, but his name is GolGol, not AssistAssist.
It was the away side's turn next to break the deadlock when Dario Vidosic received a free kick 25 out on the left when his shirt was pulled.
The man himself stepped up and hit the free kick low, curling it around the wall and cliping the inside of the post as it beats O'Connor into the net.
Vidosic's then turned to celebrate the goal with the crowd, only to find it non-existent, in a rather good jab at the poorly supported home side.
Indeed, it was a stormy afternoon, with torrential rain at points, but with only 1,723 people showing up, they couldn't have expected too many more on a typical Gold Coast day.
Adelaide then dominated the rest of the proceedings. Neither team particularly looked like scoring again, but every time it breaks to Vidosic with only a few defenders and Van Dijk in front of him, you can't help but get carried away. The way he runs with the ball is quite alluring.
Adelaide take the 3 points that Kosmina said was a must for his players, and the Gold Coast continue to march into the darkness, with speculation over the club's future and validity continuing.