Western United was dominant across the 90 minutes but had to settle for a 1-1 draw in the Ninja A-League Women against Adelaide United on Saturday evening.
Adelaide took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes despite a strong start from the visitors, but that turned out to be really the only joy the hosts had in their attacking third.
The Green and Black commanded proceedings from there on and finally equalised in the 61st minute via Catherine Zimmerman’s third goal of the season.
Chances went begging and the final ball was at times just an inch away from falling in Western’s favour, giving Kat Smith and her side a great deal of confidence to take into the coming weeks.
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With the games coming thick and fast in the past week, Smith kept the faith in her squad with an unchanged starting XI and substitutes bench.
That meant Chloe Lincoln continued in goal with Adriana Taranto starting for the third game in a row on the right-hand side, while Sara Eggesvik went again in midfield.
First half
Western United started well, winning a corner inside the opening minute before Kahli Johnson blasted the first shot into the side netting.
Both sides showed a willingness to press the opposition from the outset with plenty of long balls in the early exchanges to bypass that pressure.
It was the hosts that got their foot on the ball the quicker of the two sides though and put together an opening goal really out of nothing as Erin Healy scampered down the left wing before hitting a long-range strike in off the underside off the crossbar.
Adelaide’s press and forward momentum made it difficult for the Green and Black to develop any sort of possession early on but Johnson was able to have a massive chance on goal in the 16th minute, streaming into the box one-on-one with the goalkeeper but seeing her effort saved.
United slowly began to have more and more joy going forward and remained a constant threat from set pieces and a willingness to play direct balls behind Adelaide’s defensive line.
Johnson got in behind again just before the half hour and put a teasing ball in to the back post, but the Adelaide defence just managed to squeeze the ball out for a corner as Catherine Zimmerman slid in.
The resulting set piece hit the crossbar direct from Adriana Taranto’s delivery before Isabel Dehakiz’s follow-up attempt was cleared off the goal line.
Western United kept on the front foot and Claudia Jenkins made another excellent save for the hosts, this one denying Chloe Logarzo after some more positive play by Adriana Taranto.
Second half
The Green and Black set about continuing the first-half dominance, only this time aiming to find some tangible rewards from it.
Kiara De Domizio came off the bench at the break and was immediately in the action with a run down the wing, but generally speaking Adelaide made it more difficult for Western than they had done in the first period.
That was until right on the hour mark when Western United put together perhaps its best move of the match up to that point.
Working the ball from back to front down the left-hand side, a combination of Logarzo and a recovering Adelaide defender shoveled the ball through to Zimmerman who, with a typically instinctive piece of play, stretched to get ahead of her defender and fire the ball into the net.
The bulk of the play remained in Western’s attacking half as Smith’s side searched for a lead in the game, sustaining the pressure with set piece opportunities and balls into the channels searching for runners in the final third.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Lincoln picked out her namesake Logarzo with a superb long ball and the Western skipper obliged with a delicately flicked header to send Johnson through on goal, but her dinked effort flew just over the crossbar.
The pressure remained right until the final whistle with Melissa Taranto seeing an injury-time strike deflected just over the crossbar, leaving Western United ultimately frustrated at having to settle for a point.
