Adelaide United and Newcastle have played out a 0-0 draw in the Westfield W-League clash at Hindmarsh Stadium on Monday.
The Reds started the contest strongly and had an opportunity to score when the speedy Donna Cockayne found space in the box in the opening 10 minutes.
Her shot from close range was deflected by goalkeeper Alison Logue, who dived to her right, and then seconds later a second attempt rebounded off the woodwork.
End to end action was prominent in the first half with both sides struggling to build meaningful forays into attack. But the home side was more convincing and Cockayne was proving a handful.
A convincing passage of play, featuring Marijana Rajcic and Teneille Boaler, set up Cockayne for another short-range attempt at the 29th minute.
But the woodwork denied United for the second time.
It was a different story in the second half with the Jets pressing hard to break the deadlock.
Madeline Searl was creating opportunities with her crosses from the right side while Stacey Day headed a corner kick from Amber Neilson but sent the ball over the crossbar.
And in injury time Gema Simon also got in good position but her powerful strike was blocked by a Reds defender.
A sheer weight of goal attempts should’ve earned the Jets’ the lead but the Reds never surrendered.
Adelaide United coach Mike Barnett said his team had the best scoring opportunities of the game but was still pleased to walk away with a draw.
“It’s good to get on the board with a point at least at home and as I said to the girls before the game that we wanted to get something out of the game and it’s going to be a tough season,” Barnett said.
“We have to be realistic, we don’t think we’ll finish top but we just want to make sure we are competitive and I think today we were competitive.”
Newcastle coach Wayne O’Sullivan said his team did well to regroup after some early pressure in the first half.
“When you are away from home you do look to put up points but it’s such a short season you try to pick up as many as you can as quickly as possible,” he said.
“The refreshing thing is the girls have worked on a lot of things for eight weeks and a lot of that came out today.”
The Jets play the Glory next Saturday while the Reds play the Central Coast Mariners at Bluetongue Stadium on Sunday.
Adelaide United 0
Newcastle Jets 0
@ Hindmarsh Stadium
