Adelaide United have snapped their four-game A-League Men winless run with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Macarthur FC at Coopers Stadium.
Friday night's win lifts Adelaide back up to fourth spot, equal on points with Melbourne Victory who have three games in hand, and two points clear of Macarthur who have played one game less.
"It's always a great feeling when you're winning and tonight was even better because it was such a tough game tonight," Adelaide coach Carl Veart said.
"The boys stuck to the way we wanted to play and they really dug in and grinded out a 1-0 result."
After a slow start the Reds had the majority of the chances over the course of the match.
But it was Macarthur who had all the play early and their first chance arrived on five minutes when Craig Noone crossed from the left, finding Jack McGing at the back post, but his header went into the side netting.
On 26 minutes Ulises Davila darted through the Adelaide penalty area and cut back for Apostolos Giannou, but his close-range effort was blocked.
Adelaide wrestled some control after the half hour mark and forced Filip Kurto into his first save when Alexandar Popovic lifted the ball over Macarthur's defence for Craig Goodwin, but the half-volley was well saved.
Lachlan Brook was lively for Adelaide and in the 41st minute, beat two defenders with a dazzling manoeuvre but fired just wide.
For all United's pressure late in the half, they were eventually rewarded with a goal in a minute into added time.
Popovic stopped Davila on the edge of the area with a strong tackle, leaving Javi Lopez to burst forward. The Spaniard found Brook who layed off to Goodwin before the Socceroo crossed to the back post where Hiroshi Ibusuki nodded the ball past the onrushing Kurto.
The visitors had the first chance after the interval with Noone again finding McGing at the back post but his sliding shot was saved by Joe Gauci.
Just after the hour Josh Cavallo and Goodwin exchanged a quick one-two on the left with Cavallo shooting just wide and moments later the two combined again, but this time Goodwin had the shot which skimmed just past the post.
The Reds were getting plenty of joy down their left side and on 70 minutes a powerful header from Popovic was denied by an equally impressive save from Kurto.
Macarthur almost found an equaliser with two minutes remaining when Davila slipped through substitute Al Hassan Toure, but the former Reds attacker's shot from close range was kept out by Gauci.
"I thought we did well, I thought we deserved something from the game," a disappointed Bulls coach Ante Milicic said.
"We definitely created better chances, better quality chances (but) in the end conceded at the worst possible time."
