A hotly contested affair which had three goals, two red cards and a fair share of hand-bags thrown saw Adelaide United come away with a 2-1 victory over the Brisbane Roar at Coopers Stadium.
A Ben Halloran double either side of half-time gave The Reds a solid barrier as the former Roar winger made use of some slippery work from Craig Goodwin to tap home his first A-League goal for his new club.
Just moments before the interval, Brisbane Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young parried a Ryan Kitto cross straight to Halloran’s feet – and he duly tucked home his second.
The Roar were able to wrestle themselves back into the game when substitute Henrique got on the end of Dylan Wezel-Halls’ cross to bring his side back within a goal.
From this moment on, the game suddenly took a turn for the worse.
Adelaide defender Taylor Regan was given his second yellow card after an apparent eye-gouge, and suddenly the Reds were down to ten men with fifteen minutes to play.
However, there was more drama to come as Brisbane substitute Stefan Mauk was sent off in stoppage time for a tackle on Goodwin which ended his day and suddenly evened the ledger on the field.
Mauk, although hit the turf hard and was knocked out after the challenge was made, which set off further spot-fires on and off the pitch – including one between both Marco Kurz and John Aloisi.
In even more disappointing news for the Roar, star striker Adam Taggart looks set for a stint on the sidelines after he seemed to injure his groin late in the first half.
Taggart did not return and was forced off the field after the incident.
In the end, Adelaide were able to hold on to close out their third victory in the league this season which moves them into second, while the Roar stay sixth for the time being.
Next up for Adelaide is a trip to Melbourne to take on the Victory next Saturday night while the Roar travel to Newcastle to face the Jets on Sunday evening.
