Adelaide United host Wellington Phoenix in Round 14 of the A-League and will be out to stop the in-form team of the competition. The Phoenix have won their last three matches, including a 2-1 defeat of league leaders Melbourne Victory last week and the Reds know they are in for a tough contest.

Adelaide could not manage maximum points away to Newcastle last week and coach Aurelio Vidmar knows how important it is to make up for lost opportunities.

"There was an opportunity last week and we didn't take it, (although) everyone was really focused on trying to achieve that," Vidmar said.

"We went through a period like this last year where we had three or four opportunities to get top spot and never took it.

"Our squad is certainly different from what it was last year and is much tougher, especially mentally, so there is an opportunity to go to the top of the tree for a few hours and hopefully they can take it."

Vidmar said that facing the form team was a dangerous prospect.

"They're probably the form team of the competition at this point of time. They've taken a couple of big scalps in Sydney and Melbourne in the past couple of weeks so they're in pretty good form," Vidmar said.

"I think it has been well documented over the last three or four weeks that they've had a couple of big heart to hearts and ironed out a few problems and they're really reaping the benefits now so it's going to be an extremely tough game."

The Reds coach also touched on the fact that the Phoenix posses the league's leading scorer in their arsenal which would also be tough to combat.

"(Shane) Smeltz is probably the best striker in the competition and with Fred coming into the line up over the past couple of weeks, he adds that bit of flair going forward so they're going to be a very tough opposition," Vidmar added.

"But we're at home and our form at home has been pretty good so we'd like to keep that in tact."