Adelaide United maintained their grip on second place in the Hyundai A-League on 16 December by downing Wellington Phoenix 3-1 at Hindmarsh Stadium, although their victory was marred by post-match allegations of racist remarks directed towards visiting striker Paul Ifill by a vocal minority in the 8,657-strong crowd. The host club and the appropriate authorities were on the case in fairly short order after being alerted to the incident, something which the game can ill afford in any part of the world, not just Australasia. The action one prefers to see and read about was swift to materialise in this match, with both teams having opportunities to open the scoring inside the first 105 seconds. Ifill headed a Louis Fenton cross inches over the bar initially, while from the resulting goal-kick, Marcelo Carrusca's through ball for Dario Vidosic saw Mark Paston hurtle off his line to save at the rampaging midfielder's feet. Adelaide contrived a neat sixth minute move featuring a one-two between Cameron Watson and Fabio Ferreira, and a Bruce Djite cross which invited Carrusca to let fly from the edge of the penalty area through a crowded goalmouth. Paston plunged to his left to smother this effort, and dealt with a Ferreira effort from similar range in similar fashion seconds later, but Wellington's custodian was found wanting in the nineteenth minute of play as Adelaide opened the scoring, although whether the goal should have been awarded is another matter entirely. Ifill needlessly committed the foul near the touch-line by raising his boot in a dangerous manner as his opponent attempted to head the ball, an offence punishable by an indirect free-kick. Carrusca duly curled the set-piece into the danger zone, and the darting, distracting run across all-comers by Osama Malik deceived all-comers, Paston in particular, and saw the ball enter the net untouched. Referee Strebre Delovksi awarded the goal, wrongly as it turned out - the correct ruling in such instances is a goal-kick. Needlessly to say, Wellington were far from amused by this development, but five minutes later they had even more to concern themselves with - the concession of a second goal. Ifill and Manny Muscat mis-read each other's intentions, much to the delight of Iain Fyfe, who surged forward before bringing Vidosic into play. Djite and Carrusca swiftly became involved, with the last-mentioned jinking inside a challenge before lashing home an unerring twenty-yard finish low inside Paston's near post - 2-0. Talk about a red rag to a bull! Wellington came storming back in search of quick riposte, and should have been granted it in the 26th minute. Instead, they were again failed by officialdom, an errant offside flag wrongly decreeing that Stein Huysegems was offside as he touched home Ifill's low drive, the striker having brilliantly evaded three challenges before letting fly. Buoyed by this, the visitors grew in confidence, but not before Paston saved at the second attempt to prevent Vidosic from extending Adelaide's advantage after he had worked a one-two with Ferreira. Dani Sanchez, playing for the first time this season,

went close with a Wellington free-kick in the 33rd minute, while Eugene Galekovic grabbed Ifill's drive seven minutes later, as the visitors kept pressing for a breakthrough. Instead, they got caught by a sucker punch in the last seconds of the half, Adelaide extending their advantage to 3-0 through Ferreira, whose angled shot across Paston was made possible by Carrusca's splendidly weighted pass into his stride down the right. The second spell saw Adelaide largely keeping Wellington at arm's length, while exploiting the space the visitors afforded them at every opportunity -  a serious shortcoming in Wellington's game this week, notwithstanding the enforced half-time withdrawal, through injury, of captain Andrew Durante. Ferreira was only inches away from capitalising upon it ten minutes into the second half, his rising drive brought about by Carrusca's creativity. Five minutes later, Djite somehow fired over from point-blank range, while Paston denied the same player at point-blank range after Carrusca, Vidosic and Ferreira had engineered the opening. Wellington had introduced Tyler Boyd to the fray moments beforehand, and he offered a genuine threat for the visitors, making an immediate impact with a driving run and through ball for Fenton which allowed the youngster to beat an opponent and angle a shot across both Galekovic and the far post in the 63rd minute. Ten minutes later, Boyd set off on a solo run which culminated in his dragging a shot across the face of goal. Then a vital headed clearance by Nigel Boogaard prevented Fenton from getting on the end of a Lochhead cross as Wellington pursued the seemingly impossible. They were afforded a lifeline in the 81st minute by Sanchez, who fired home at the second attempt after substitutes Benjamin Totori and Boyd had combined on the right. Vince Lia headed over a cross by Fenton following Boyd's promptings soon after, but by the time Wellington were awarded a stoppage time penalty, it came too late for them to earn a share of the spoils. But Boogaard's clumsy foul on Sanchez saw referee Delovksi hesitating not in pointing to the spot. Despite his youth, Boyd took responsibility, and despatched what, on any other day, would have been a successful spot-kick. Galekovic, however, had other ideas, thrusting up his hand as he dived to his right to produce a stunning save, then recovering quickly to block Boyd's attempt to bury the rebound - a breathtaking double-save, and a fitting note on which this entertaining encounter should end, with Adelaide prevailing 3-1 to send Wellington down to seventh spot, some thirteen points behind their conquerors. Adelaide:     Galekovic; Watson, Fyfe, Boogaard, Cassio; Vidosic (Barbiero, 75), Malik, Carrusca (booked, 32); Ferreira, Djite (Neumann, 63), Kostopoulos (Ramsay, 69) Wellington:     Paston; Bertos, Sigmund (booked, 79), Durante (Smith, 46), Lochhead; Lia, Muscat (booked, 15), Sanchez; Fenton, Huysegems (Totori, 67), Ifill (booked, 34) (Boyd, 61)) Referee:     Strebre Delovski