A Steven Pace header in injury time has seen Melbourne Victory clinch a 3-3 draw against Adelaide United in the National Youth League match at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday.
The Reds led by two goals after senior United player Inseob Shin hammered a ball home from outside the box with just over 20 minutes to play.
But for the second week in a row Adelaide couldn’t maintain its hold on the contest and surrendered its advantage at the death. Matthew Demo pegged one back at the 83rd minute before Pace saved the visitors’ bacon with his last-gasp score.
He found space and nodded a Mate Dugandzic cross into the left hand corner of the net during the third and final minute of injury time.
Reds coach Joe Mullen said his team was ‘hurting’ after narrowly missing out on collecting maximum points.
“That there is a concentration thing again and it’s something they need to learn from,” Mullen said.
“I thought our first 15-20 minutes in particular was very good then we seemed to dwell on the ball a little bit too long. I thought our second half was solid but I think we ran out of steam a little bit in the last 10-15 minutes.”
Adelaide United hit the lead thanks to a powerful strike from Liam Wooding in the 23rd minute. He pulled the trigger from long range and watched with delight as the low ball flew into the left hand corner of the net.
Melbourne’s equaliser was just as impressive. At the 34th minute captain Aziz Behich’s 20-metre free kick dipped and rocketed off the turf to bounce over Mark Birighitti’s diving attempt.
Joel Allwright put the Baby Reds back in front 16 minutes into the second half with a burst of pace through the midfield and a low ball which ricocheted off the left post and across the goal line.
Shin then doubled the lead at the 72nd minute.
The Korean, who’s on United’s senior list, wasn’t displaying great touch but his cracking attempt was on the rise when it sizzled into the back of the net.
The first-half was a hard-fought affair with both teams letting themselves down with misdirected free kicks close to goal.
Allwright and Joe Costa were creative in the Reds’ front third while Dugandzic got into some good positions for the visitors.
Birighitti put the Victory’s goal behind him with two fantastic saves only minutes before the break.
At the 43rd minute he parried a strike from the evasive Dugandzic while he dived to his left to stop a Behich attempt from near the ‘D’.
Behich threatened to score from close range again in the second half but his attempt was denied by Birighitti’s foot. And then to add salt to the wounds United scored on the rebound to set up an exciting finish.
Adelaide United 3 (Wooding 23, Allwright 51, Shin 72)
Melbourne Victory 3 (Behich 34, Demo 83, Pace 90+3)
@ Hindmarsh Stadium
