Macarthur FC suffered a frustrating defeat to Adelaide United, hitting the post twice and on the end of a contentious VAR decision in a 1-0 defeat that saw both sides go down to 10 men.
Zach Clough’s early scrambled goal was enough to decide the contest for Adelaide, whose goalkeeper Joe Gauci made one of the saves of the season to deny the Bulls a deserved point on the road.
The Reds took the lead in the opening minutes when Clough turned in a loose ball from a set piece before defender Ben Warland was given his marching orders in the 15th minute for fouling Craig Noone who was through on goal.
From the resulting set piece, Macarthur captain Ulises Davila rattled the woodwork with a superb free-kick that left Gauci rooted to the spot.
Shortly after, Gauci made a superb save to deny Matt Millar’s header from a corner before the post was all that stopped the Bulls from drawing level when striker Bachana Arabuli struck the upright from another corner.
The Bulls were dealt a blow ten minutes after the restart when midfielder Jake Hollman was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence in contentious circumstances. His foul was upgraded to a yellow from the VAR, which is normally only meant to intervene for straight dismissals.
Gauci frustrated the Bulls further with a superb save in the 78th minute, making an outrageous goal-line save to deny Davila from scoring what looked to be a certain equaliser.
