Soccer: Unfancied Adelaide wrap up points title

Adelaide United hardly figured in pre-season predictions, but have wrapped up the A-League minor premiership with three games in hand.

Their 2-1 away win over Perth Glory in the first match of the 18th round on Thursday took them 12 points clear and into a virtually unassailable position.

When Sydney FC, held 1-1 at home by Central Coast Mariners on Saturday, failed to take maximum points, the honours were all with Adelaide.

While one battle is over, the other will go to the wire with six of the remaining seven teams - the New Zealand Knights do not figure - still in with a chance of making the top four playoffs and eventually the grand final.

Perth have it all in front of them. They are four points adrift of fourth-placed Central Coast Mariners and face the long away trip to North Harbour Stadium on Thursday.

As teams have found in recent times, the Knights are not a pushover and a side capable of nicking points, thus denying those in the playoff race valuable points.

In their remaining games, the Knights are at home to Adelaide and away to the disappointing Melbourne Victory.

Against Newcastle Jets in their latest outing, the Knights began slowly, had a half-decent spell where they looked likely before conceding a soft goal. They battled well for the next hour without conviction before conceding two late goals to wonder-sub Labinot Haliti.

Happy to take the points which kept his side in the race, Jets coach Richard Money said: "They [the Knights] have made everybody work hard in the last few weeks. There's a lot of room for improvement in our team and we will need to improve if we want to finish second."

Interestingly, the Jets and the Knights both had 14 attempts on goals, both goalkeepers made four saves and the Knights had slightly the better possession at 51 per cent.

Sydney FC were left wondering again as they came from a goal down to snatch a point in front of 15,977 fans at a rain-swept Aussie Stadium.

After captain Dwight Yorke had botched an eighth-minute penalty attempt which Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic saved easily, the home side battled.

Tom Pondeljak, with his first Hyundai A-League goal, broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute.

Sydney got back to 1-1 nine minutes later through David Carney.

It was Sydney's third draw in as many matches this year and since returning from the World Club Championship in Japan.