Adelaide United see their finals hopes take a dive on an afternoon of farce

The referee brings the match ball out for the Adelaide United v Brisbane Roar clash. There were soon problems with balls used in the game found be to be underinflated. Source: Getty Images

ADELAIDE United is not only the worst-performing side in the top six but in the entire competition - after a balls-up turned its finals assault into farce on Saturday.
Now Adelaide's four-match run towards the end of the home-and-away series will go a long way to proving whether the Reds are title pretenders or contenders, given their five-match form slump.

When about five balls used during the Adelaide and Brisbane Roar clash at Hindmarsh were deemed flat, the sorry state of the leathers ultimately told a sad story about the Reds' season.
Adelaide's Marcelo Carrusca best summed up United's frustration when he belted a flat ball into the eastern stand after a pass.

Perhaps Carrusca was annoyed about more than just the state of the balls as the grand final trophy is now realistically the only honour the Reds can claim this year.

Adelaide kissed its slim premier's plate chances goodbye in a 1-0 Roar loss on Saturday after it seemingly had a hand on the silverware in November.

With just four points to its name in the past five clashes, Adelaide skipper Eugene Galekovic says United's slump after another home loss to Brisbane this season is a snag in the side that must be unravelled if it is serious about winning silverware.
"It's hard to explain why. We know at our best we can compete with anyone and it was nowhere near that (against Roar)," he said.
"We need to improve that and we've got to work on things and get better with finals around the corner. We've got to be ready for that.
"We've got to stay positive as a group - it's five or six weeks to get there.
"We need one win to get there and finish top four."
Western Sydney Wanderers leapt 11 points clear of the Reds to top the table with just 12 points up for grabs after beating Central Coast 1-0 in a sellout thriller at Gosford.

But Adelaide's title assault turned sour before Christmas after it was dicing with Mariners for pole position.
Adelaide held its premier's plate hopes alive for six out of the opening eight rounds then fell in a heap.
The first sign of fragility was a convincing 2-1 defeat by Mariners in Gosford in December. It was a failure against class opposition, then Western Sydney handed the Reds a 6-1 shellacking.
That thumping proved United was now miles away from the best teams in the competition