Soccer: Brave Phoenix pipped in Adelaide

Travis Dodd of Adelaide celebrates with team mates after scoring a goal. Photo / Getty Images

The curtain came down on the Wellington Phoenix' A-League season last night when they fell 1-0 to hosts Adelaide United - but only after turning in one of their best battling efforts.

From the outset, in conditions best-suited to ducks, the Phoenix went on to the offensive at Hindmarsh Stadium. Their failure to convert any of those promising early efforts cost them the chance to go further in the Hyundai competition.

In the opening salvos, Dylan Macallister was wayward but Manny Muscat and Tim Brown tested Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic from long range.

Muscat was left treading eggshells after being booked for a silly rugby-style tackle on United danger man Marcos Flores. He was joined in referee Jarred Gillett's book by Nick Ward, while Flores in turn was also yellow-carded in the first half, for a tug on Ben Sigmund's shirt.

So too was Cameron Watson, after he barrelled into Troy Hearfield, a surprise starter in the Phoenix attack ahead of Chris Greenacre.

The visitors - shrugging off the challenge of the pelting rain, slippery surface and swirling wind - took the game to Adelaide with Brown, Muscat and Ward winning the midfield battle with some challenging 50-50 tackles.

By the break the Phoenix, who have won only 10 out of 51 games across the Tasman and went into last night's game having scored only seven goals on the road this season, had forced six corners to one, had eight shots to three (5-1 on target) and a healthy 60 per cent of possession.

Marco Rojas, named earlier in the day as the A-League young player of the month for January, was again a constant threat on the left, while Hearfield was a telling influence on the right.

At the back, the no-nonsense central pairing of Sigmund and Andrew Durante gave the much-vaunted Adelaide attack, led by golden boot leader Sergio van Dijk, no change.

The first 20 minutes of the second half were more of the same, with the Phoenix continuing to press but without creating a clear scoring chance.

Coach Ricki Herbert went to his bench on the hour and put Paul Ifill on in place of Macallister, who had run himself tirelessly as a one-man attacking force.

Ten minutes later, the deadlock was broken. Flores won the ball, found van Dijk, who weighted his pass perfectly to captain Travis Dodd, who caught Phoenix goalkeeper Danny Vukovic in two minds. He hesitated and Dodd slotted.

Herbert continued to make the changes to keep the pressure on the Adelaide defence but in the end his leg-weary players, pitched into their second game in five days, just could not breach the United defence.

The Phoenix forced two stoppage-time corners but could not cash in as the hosts held on to their slender lead and booked their place in the next round against the winner of tomorrow's game between Gold Coast United and Melbourne Victory.

For a team who have struggled on the road this season, it was a gutsy effort from the Phoenix, but in the end it was not good enough.