Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United fought out an erratic 1-1 draw in their Hyundai A-League fifth round encounter at Westpac Stadium on Friday evening, with the quality of football on show matching the inconsistency of referee Mike Hester and his assistants. The official had a game he will want to forget as he continues his preparations for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Finals in Nigeria. Initially, he let play go, then started pulling up incidents which previously had gone unpunished, before wielding the yellow card on a total of six occasions - little wonder the players were frustrated! It showed in their football, with the first fifteen minutes of the match going along at a cracking pace prior to a twenty-minute lull in which neither team even hinted at being inspired to raise their game. Two goals in seven minutes before half-time changed that tone, before the pattern was repeated in the second spell - it was certainly a challenging game for the 7,578-strong crowd to endure, with the usually boisterous Yellow Fever crew comparatively quiet as the spells during which on-field inspiration was lacking seemed to impact upon their enthusiasm for the contest. They were anything but quiet during an attack-laden opening quarter-hour, however, with Wellington spurning a chance to open the scoring inside the first forty seconds. A Leo Bertos free-kick wasn't cleared, and Daniel picked up the pieces and picked out the head of Tim Brown with a gorgeous cross, seemingly delivered from an offside position. Adelaide certainly thought so, but Brown played to the whistle, only to direct his header across the face of goal and beyond the far post - a bad miss, which was repeated at the other end of the park three minutes later. Scott Jamieson picked out the completely unmarked Adam Hughes, who headed over the bar from eight yards. Both goals survived scares in the next sixty seconds, with powerful performer Lloyd Owusu thwarted at one end prior to Wellington launching an instant counter-attack which culminated in Bertos curling a shot past the far post from just outside the penalty area. The lively opening continued unabated in the thirteenth minute, when Paul Ifill's shot on the turn ricocheted off Chris Greenacre straight to the feet of Brown, who, with Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic beaten, pulled his shot across the face of goal and narrowly past the far post. Brown was in the thick of things again two minutes later, picking out Daniel as the Brazilian buccaneered down the left, in tandem with Greenacre. Two Adelaide defenders were left completely bemused by the Brazilian's clever lob as he set up a chance for his team-mate, with Greenacre unable to direct his effort on target after being swiftly closed down by two burly opponents. Galekovic was not best pleased with the efforts of the four defenders in front of him, and let them know it. Their response was to tighten things up considerably over the course of the next twenty minutes, during which there was only one incident of note, a Bertos cross ricocheting off Hughes towards the Adelaide goal, forcing Galekovic to save at the second attempt. He was afforded no chance whatsoever ten minutes before half-time, as Wellington took the lead. Bertos broke down the right once more, and fired over an early cross which arced behind Goodacre, right into the path of the unmarked Ifill. The striker unleashed a thumping fifteen-yard volley which swerved past Galekovic and crashed into the net at his near post, to the delight of the locals. Their joy lasted all of seven minutes, for after a cynical foul by Ben Sigmund - a mistimed over the

top tackle for which he was lucky to get just a yellow card - Scott Jamieson swung in the resulting free-kick, and in the scramble which ensued, Adelaide defender Mark Rudan directed a header against the far post. Wellington scrambled this to safety, but their relief was temporary, for from Paul Reid's resulting corner, Iain Fyfe was on hand to turn the ball home at the near post - 1-1. Another Reid corner in the shadows of the half-time whistle had Mark Paston at full stretch to keep the in-swinging delivery out, while straight after half-time, Wellington's goalkeeper was beaten all ends up as Adelaide sliced open their hosts straight from the resumption. Reid played in Owusu, who held the ball up well before setting up Cristiano for a shot which fizzed past Paston but crashed against the far post. Lucas Pantelis, following in, should have buried the rebound, but instead dragged it across the face of goal. It was a real let-off for Wellington, who looked to take full advantage of the reprieve via Ifill's raid five minutes into the half. The striker set up Bertos to unleash a shot on the run which ricocheted off Rudan for a corner … At least, it should have been a corner, but the officials deemed that the ball had also deflected off the close-at-hand figure of Greenacre on its travels, much to Wellington's consternation. They were soon pressing again, however, Adelaide failing to clear a Bertos corner, allowing Greenacre to set up Vince Lia for a twenty-yard drive which careered untouched through a crowded goalmouth and inches past the right-hand post. The inconsistencies of referee Hester dominated the next half-hour of play, his efforts punctuated only by a 61st minute incident in which Sigmund blocked a Pantelis shot after Cristiano had been picked out by Alemao in the penalty area. In the final ten minutes, Wellington piled on the pressure in search of a winner. Ifill led the charge initially, with Jon McKain steaming up on his right on the overlap. The defender's low cross was touched on by Greenacre for the unmarked Daniel, who would have scored if his right foot wasn't solely for standing on. The need to get the ball onto his left peg saw the chance go begging, but if that wasn't bad enough, a highly dubious offside call against Greenacre - was he really in the active area of play? - denied the clearly onside Ifill what would have been the winner, his rasping twenty-yarder careering past Galekovic into the far corner of the net only for his celebrations to be curtailed by the raised flag. Wellington weren't best pleased, to put it mildly, but kept pounding away in stoppage time. Tony Lochhead picked out Ifill, who wriggled past a defender into the penalty area before crossing to the far post. Substitute Troy Hearfield was unable to climb high enough to make contact with the ball, while seconds later Brown - he could have had a hat-trick with better fortune! - saw his last-gasp drive cannon to safety off Rudan, a ricochet which ensured the visitors would secure the point for which they came, albeit rather fortuitously. Wellington:     Paston; Sigmund (booked, 41) (Hearfield, 82), McKain, Durante, Lochhead; Ifill, Bertos (Walsh, 84), Lia (booked, 56), Brown (booked, 74), Daniel; Greenacre Adelaide:     Galekovic; Marrone (booked, 38), Rudan (booked, 43), Fyfe (booked, 63), Jamieson; Alemao, Hughes, Reid, Pantelis; Owusu (Shin, 90), Cristiano (Monterosso, 82) Referee:     Mike Hester