ADELAIDE United's 10th anniversary celebrations didn’t end quite as planned after rival Melbourne Victory forced a 2-2 draw in a thriller at Coopers Stadium last night.
James Troisi spoiled the Reds party when he nailed the equaliser in stoppage time after Adelaide led 2-0 until the 79th minute.
It was Troisi’s third goal in Adelaide in just three appearances in his home town.
And for the final 11 minutes the match was likened to a boxing match as Adelaide was on the ropes before Victory delivered two sucker punches.
But it was a different story in the first half.
Sergio Cirio scored from the penalty spot to give the most of the 16,504 fans - a full house and an Adelaide A-League record - a good reason to celebrate as United's commemorative kit which featured SA’s predominant tricolours was perhaps a lucky charm.
Cirio kick started the Reds party in the 20th minute but Jeronimo Neumann brought the house down five minutes later when he jagged his third goal of the season.
Victory's Gui Finkler slotted his side's first goal of the season when his 15m shot made its way through a sea of legs after the ball kindly rolled out to the Brazilian from a Kosta Barbarouses corner 11 minutes from time.
But Reds history was seemingly happily repeating itself when Adelaide fans jam packed Hindmarsh just like October 17, 2003 when the then new club beat Brisbane Strikers 1-0 on a balmy evening – just like last night.
Adelaide, however, was forced to deal with the massive losses of Nigel Boogaard and Isaias Sanchez via suspension before Marcelo Carrusca withdrew from the XI after straining his quad during Thursday night's familiarisation session at Coopers Stadium.
Adelaide coach Josep Gombau re-jigged his line up pushing fringe Socceroos Michael Zullo further up field while Tarek Elrich slotted into left back.
But just 14 minutes into the clash Gombau was forced to look to his bench when right back Daniel Bowles perhaps put his right boot where it shouldn't have been in a tackle with Victory defender Adrian Leijer.
Bowles ended his shift abruptly as Gombau pondered his next move.
The Spaniard introduced Awer Mabil and it worked a treat.
The 18-year-old moved to the left wing, Zullo retreated to left back and Elrich was moved to right back.
Although Adelaide wasn't playing pretty tiki-taka football the side managed to find holes in Victory's defence.
Adelaide's high defensive line at times appeared risky but when Troisi stole the ball from Cam Watson supplied Archie Thompson who in turn gave Connor Pain a chance to score the club's first goal of the season - the ball sailing over the bar perhaps told the story of the away side's first half.
But in the 20th minute the game swung Adelaide's way.
Cirio's through ball to Jeronimo inside the box forced Victory gloveman Nathan Coe to react instinctively.
With Jeronimo hitting the deck hard referee Alan Milliner pointed to the spot seconds after Mabil's shot hit the post from the rebound.
The Spaniard appeared nervous with his second chance but managed to send Coe the wrong way to nail his first Reds goal of the season.Cirio put his first effort away but Milliner ruled it out for encroachment.
Just five minutes later Adelaide had a 2-0 lead.
Elrich and Cirio combined before Mabil turned inside his defender Jason Geria before his 20m shot cannoned off the upright, hit the back of Coe before Jeronimo tucked in the rolling rebound from 3m.
But to Victory's credit the away side never caved in and when Troisi again opened Adelaide with a sublime through ball the referee's assistant seemingly got an offside call wrong.
Thompson's unselfishness perhaps cost Victory a goal when the Socceroo decided to lay the ball off to Pain who put the ball into the back of the net only to see the assistant's flag raised.
Ferreira best summed up the mood of the Reds in the 50th minute of the clash when he chased down Pain as he was honing down on goal and applied the cleanest slide tackle you'll ever see inside the box when Adelaide's defenders were left up field.
Victory wasn't down, however, as Adelaide's high line handed the hard pressing Victorian club enough opportunities to do some damage.
Adama Traore forced Reds skipper Eugene Galekovic into a diving save after Mitch Nichols created opening before Nick Ansell shaved the post with an attempted header from a corner.
Troisi should have posted a goal for Victory in the 62nd minute when Adelaide's defence was caught napping but he smacked the ball wide with his right boot from 10m with only Galekovic to beat
