Played in wet and windy conditions, the game started with both side's locked in on defence as neither team were able to create any clear opportunities.

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos was a bright spot early for Western United. The forward's first chance came after seven minutes as his header attempt sailed just over the bar before he got onto a fantastic ball from Brendan Hamill at the 19 minute mark which was shut down by Adelaide goal keeper Paul Izzo.

As the game began to open up, Western United goal keeper Filip Kurto was tested, however held his own, sending away the Reds' first real opportunity from Riley McGree.

McGree however would not get the chance to contribute further in the game after being shown a straight red card 36 minutes into the first half.

In a show of good faith and wanting to test his side against the experienced Reds, Western United coach Mark Rudan allowed Adelaide to keep 11 players on the pitch after McGree headed to the bench.

As the game continued, Kurto proved too good for the Adelaide strikers, sending away another shot with a diving save that got the crowd on their feet.

Entering the half tied at 0-0, Rudan said he was pleased with what he had seen over the first 45 minutes and praised his young players who had been injected into the starting lineup.

"We had some younger players get a start like Josh Cavallo, Jon Aspro and Apostolos Stamatepoulos," he said.

"We worked a lot on different things during the week but the emphasis was on our pressing in the first half, which was pretty good."

The second half saw much of the same, as both sides peppered the goals but fell short of finding the back of the net, leading to the scoreless draw.

After the game, Rudan spoke about the growth he has seen in his side over the preseason.

"(I've seen) a lot of improvements from last week against Victory. The fact we didn't concede on the back of last week's result pleased me the most. Their attitude and effort was a lot better than last week, too."

Adelaide coach Gertjan Verbeek spoke highly of the Western United defence while also saying his team simply didn't perform well enough to come away with the win.

"(Western United) played a 5-3-2 and it was difficult for us to find the open spaces," he said.

"We had a few good chances but we weren't good enough to beat the opponent.

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