Western Sydney’s search for their first win of the A-League Men (ALM) season has shown no signs of ending after Adelaide United claimed an entertaining 4-3 victory.
Alen Stajcic’s side have picked up just one point from their opening three games and have not won at their CommBank Stadium home since January.
Former Wanderers winger Dylan Pierias grabbed two of Adelaide’s goals in Saturday night’s win, the Reds’ first of the campaign.
Western Sydney goalkeeper Tristan Vidakovic had a night to forget with two early errors directly contributing to Adelaide racing into a 3-1 first-half lead.
Stajcic’s men lacked cutting edge and direction in the opening 45 minutes but it was still a surprise to see the Wanderers boss hook star recruit Juan Mata at halftime.
"Our first 20 minutes was really poor," Stajcic said.
"We weren't there at that moment and we got torn apart and it was compounded by the fact that they got goals in that period."
Zac Sapsford took Mata's place and he helped spark a second-half fightback but the Wanderers’ sloppy first-half display proved too much to overcome.
There should have been plenty of inspiration for Western Sydney to draw on given the club commemorated the 10-year anniversary of their Asian Champions League title win before kick-off.
But as the game got underway, things couldn’t have felt much further from their dizzying and unlikely charge to be crowned the best club on the continent a decade ago.
The Wanderers should be one of the biggest and most-feared sides in the ALM but in front of a meagre crowd of 7244, Adelaide ran rampant.
"We don't like to make things easy for ourselves," said Adelaide coach Carl Veart.
"But in the first half, we were very good, we had good control but after that the Wanderers really upped the intensity and put us under a lot of pressure."
There could be a case made that all of Adelaide’s first-half goals were completely avoidable.
The first came after just four minutes when Ethan Alagich was allowed to coast through the midfield unchallenged and unleash a shot from distance.
Vidakovic parried the ball right into the path of Luka Jovanovic who tapped in the rebound.
The 21-year-old Wanderers goalkeeper was unable to shake off the jitters and looked crestfallen when he flapped at a Zach Clough cross that trickled off Austin Ayoubi and into his net.
Nicolas Milanovic pulled one back for Stajcic’s men but the Reds quickly restored a two-goal buffer courtesy of Pierias, who fired a rebounded free-kick through Vidakovic’s gloves and into the net.
Stajcic needed a response and Sapsford provided it when he set up former Wellington forward Bozhidar Kraev.
Clough played in Pierias for Adelaide's fourth of the evening with half an hour left.
Brandon Borrello scored from close range to give Western Sydney hope that could salvage a point but they were unable to land a blow and their search for a win continues.
