United surrender in front of depleted Hindmarsh

A depleted Adelaide crowd get set for their clash with the Roar

Adelaide United has become the victim of their own town’s festival season as they stuttered to a 1-0 loss with Brisbane Roar in front of their lowest home crowd of the season.

With the A-League fixture competing with the combined pulling power of Soundwave, the Clipsal 500 and countless Fringe festival shows, only 6878 fans showed up to support United as they faced Mike Mulvey’s charges.

The fans that sat in the half-empty terraces were provided with a match that looked to produce as much drama possible in order to find the public attention it craved. The match was littered with near-misses, yellow cards, audacious back-heels, a send-off and a penalty call that enraged the home faithful.

Brisbane made the breakthrough in the 82nd minute as Ben Halloran slid the ball home after receiving the ball from the league’s most liked player, Besart Berisha.

The Roar had produced sustained pressure earlier in the match and were unlucky not to take the lead in the first half as Franjic’s header cannoned off both posts before being cleared to safety.

The second half produced much of the same as Brisbane had the best chance to snatch the lead when referee Shaun Evans penalised Osama Malik for fouling Besart Berisha inside the box. Memories of last season’s Grand Final reappeared when Berisha appeared to make the most of contact in the box after 48 minutes.

The home crowd’s howls of disgust managed (for once) to drown out the hard rock festival that blasted away in ignorance of the match. The Red Army got a brief moment of respite as they watched the Albanian fire his penalty into the upright.

As the Reds threw everything at their opponents in the closing stages a quick counter-attack saw Malik receive his marching orders for bringing down Halloran before he could fire into Galekovic’s open net.