Melbourne City have blown a golden chance to go top of the Isuzu UTE A-League table, slumping to a 2-1 loss to Adelaide United while also counting the cost of injuries to Scott Jamieson and Marco Tilio.
Mohamed Toure was Adelaide’s hero, pouncing on Carl Jenkinson’s loose backpass in the 85th minute to drill home the winner at AAMI Park, after City failed to make their earlier dominance count.
The 17-year-old Toure guided Adelaide into third place, just one point behind City.
Jamie Maclaren earlier snared City the lead in the 11th minute only for Javi Lopez to equalise nine minutes later, his intended cross finding the back of the City net.
In City’s third game in eight days, Tilio limped off after just 41 minutes while Jamieson left the field holding his hamstring in the 52nd minute.
City drew first blood when Jamieson’s searching pass prompted Adelaide goalkeeper Joe Gauci to come off his line and accidentally nudge the ball into the path of Maclaren, who pounced.
Maclaren’s eighth goal of the season sent him to outright top of the golden-boot race with eight, one ahead of Newcastle’s Beka Mikeltadze.
Adelaide responded when Lopez floated in a cross from the right and Tom Glover misjudged the flight of the ball which dropped into the City goal.
Maclaren had the ball in the back of the net again in the 31st minute but it was chalked off for offside, while Craig Goodwin was also denied by the linesman’s flag two minutes later.
Curtis Good then headed home in the 48th minute but it was ruled out for a push in the back.
Gauci made a brilliant one-handed stop in the 66th minute to deny Stefan Colakovski, before batting away Scott Galloway’s long-range effort four minutes later.
Then, against the run of play, Jenkinson’s poor back pass under pressure was intercepted by Toure who burst forward and coolly slotted the winner.