Adelaide held to draw by Central Coast in trial match

Adelaide United tuned up for Wednesday’s Asian Champions League clash with a 1-1 draw against A-League rivals Central Coast Mariners at Hindmarsh Stadium yesterday afternoon.

The Reds take on Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima at home in their third group stage match next week and needed a hit-out prior to keep match fitness up and invited the Mariners for a closed doors match.

Adelaide’s Argentine import Marcos Flores got the game off to a scoring start in the 24th minute before Mariners striker Matt Simon levelled seven minutes later.

Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar said the match was a good chance to give some game time to those who have not been playing regularly in recent times.

“It was ok. Obviously it was very difficult conditions playing at 2pm, the tempo was a bit slow, but that was typical of the conditions, so I was reasonably pleased with the hit out,” Vidmar said.

“In the second half we played most of the players that haven’t had much game time, so that was a good hit out for them, so I was pretty pleased with that.

“We needed the run. We still want to do that (play games) because there’s a fortnight between games…and we thought after having an internal trial, which we’ve done, we’d give them (the players) a different stimulus and we’re thankful for Arnie (Graham Arnold) and the Central Coast for coming down here to give us a hit out, and it was a good hit out.

“For us it’s about moving forward, we’re happy where we are at the moment but it’s really important that we get a win on Wednesday night just to give us that little bit more of a buffer.”