KEY POINTS:
In one of the most unusual starts to a major football championship, eight of the 12 matches in the opening three rounds of the A-League have ended in a draw.
Of the four games which have produced a result, leaders Central Coast Mariners have won three.
They have yet to concede a goal in beating Sydney FC, the Wellington Phoenix and Queensland Roar.
Near neighbours Newcastle Jets are the only other winners after their 1-0 victory over the Phoenix on Sunday.
They are four points back in second place. In other interesting statistics from the third round, Perth Glory played out their third 0-0 draw in holding out against visiting Sydney.
Only four goals were scored in the round - all finding the net in the second half.
Adam Kwasnik got the Coasters home 1-0 over Queensland Roar in Brisbane with his 58th-minute goal.
Melbourne took the lead against Adelaide United when Rodrigo Vargas scored after 80 minutes at Hindmarsh Stadium.
The home side replied three minutes later when Travis Dodd netted from the penalty spot.
In Wellington, Matt Thompson broke the Westpac Stadium deadlock with his deflected 79th-minute freekick. In restricting goals to just 1.83 a match, the goalkeepers have most certainly been in control while coaches throughout the league continue to bemoan the failure of strikers to score.
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert is not alone in that.
His team scored twice in their first game but not since.
The Phoenix, Newcastle and Sydney have scored two in three outings with Perth, yet to open their account, behind them.
Herbert has a short turnaround this week but is determined when he gets his players back on the training pitch today that they work on their shooting. "It was disappointing to dominate as we did against Newcastle and not score," he said. "At least we are creating chances. Now we have to put them away."
The Phoenix fly to Sydney on Thursday afternoon ahead of Friday night's fourth-round opener.
They are then back to Wellington to play Adelaide, hoping the support they have enjoyed so far continues.
While down on the 14,000-plus they had at their season opener, the Phoenix still had a healthy 11,478 fans on Sunday - almost 3000 more than Queensland had at Suncorp Stadium and considerably more than the 7907 who turned out in Perth.
Adelaide, with 12,231 attracted the biggest crowd of the round.
