Analysis: Adelaide United earns battling 2-2 draw with Central Coast Mariners

IT WAS as if Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz knew circumstances were going to conspire against his side before a ball was kicked in its clash with Central Coast Mariners. But how did the Reds carve out a point with 10 men? Full match analysis.

Adelaide United’s George Blackwood celebrates his equaliser in the Reds’ 2-2 draw with Central Coast Mariners. Picture: AAP Image/James Eslby

IT WAS as if Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz knew circumstances were going to conspire against his side before a ball was kicked in its clash with Central Coast Mariners.

“We must keep doing our job every day by working hard, remembering we can only control the football we play,” Kurz had cautioned in Saturday night’s match programme.

So it proved as the Reds fought back from two goals down to carve out a 2-2 draw with 10 men despite contending with a substandard Hindmarsh Stadium pitch and some baffling officiating.

MATCH REPORT: 10-man Reds salvage draw

Much had been rightly made of the playing surface which greeted the sides following the battering it had taken from AFLX and a Foo Fighters concert in recent weeks.

The threadbare pitch, usually the best in the A-League, hampered Adelaide’s ability to play at the high tempo it prefers early on.

Players regularly lost their footing as the Reds struggled on the bumpy deck to pass out from the back or fizz diagonal balls into their speedy wide men in the opening exchanges.

Worse still was the inconsistency of referee Shaun Evans and his team of officials.

Adelaide United defender Ersan Gulum receives his marching orders from referee Shaun Evans. Picture: AAP Image/James Eslby

Andrew Hoole appeared to handle the ball before being brought down for the first-half free kick he converted.

The failure to use the VAR when Ersan Gulum received his marching orders for allegedly hauling down Mariners winger Trent Buhagiar as he sped goalwards was even more puzzling.

In fairness United did not help itself at times against a side winless in 10 games.

Allowing the visitors to plant blockers in the defensive wall who ducked to let Hoole’s set piece bounce past a motionless Paul Izzo was a schoolboy error for the opener.

But youngster Ryan Strain’s second-half own goal owed more to bad luck than bad judgment and the Reds displayed their customary fighting qualities after Jordan Elsey pulled one back.

Drove on by the brilliant Daniel Adlung, the hosts edged Central Coast for attempts on goal (22-12) and forced the Mariners deep inside their own half late on.

Indeed they might have snatched an unlikely victory were it not for the wastefulness which had led to the competition’s most shots (282), but worst conversion rate (10.2 per cent).

George Blackwood’s thumping equaliser at the death was the least Adelaide deserved for a stirring comeback which had the home faithful roaring with approval.

In the end, the Reds embraced the words of its German mentor and took matters into their own hands.