I was not alone in thinking that the Roar Women v Adelaide United Women match was going to be a shooting gallery, with Adelaide the ducks and, well, you get the analogy...

After all, Roar Women were top of the table and undefeated in 17 games while Adelaide were bringing up the W-League rear and coming off the back of an embarrassing 6-0 spanking at the hands of Central Coast Mariners.

My main hope was that the younger, less experienced Adelaide would be able to bag a confidence-boosting consolation goal and that Roar would take pity and wouldn't drub them too badly. Clearly Roar coach Jeff Hopkins thought so too, choosing to rest pretty much his entire starting XI and experiment with combinations.

Roar went 1-0 down to Adelaide within 10 minutes and 2-0 down within 20. The players were clearly rattled and Hopkins, desperate to turn things around, didn't even wait until half time to make his first substitution.

Experienced Matilda Jo Burgess made an immediate impact on the game and the Roar went on to claw back one goal in the first half and a second goal in the second. But not even with a whopping five full minutes of injury time at the end of the match could they find a third.

Words cannot describe the solemn, deathly silent atmosphere afterwards. It was as though Roar had lost the grand final. And that somebody had died during it. In fact, it felt as though we'd witnessed not a football match but a funeral.

Just a month ago I talked of how I hoped that, rather than being dominated by Roar Women, season two would be a two (or more) horse race [link: http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/115027,blog-two-or-more-horse-race.aspx] and it appears that my wish is well and truly coming true. But to have it happen under such dire circumstances is, frankly, both surprising and disturbing.

Credit where credit is due, nothing-to-lose Adelaide played as though this was their grand final and deserved not only the draw but a win. But some serious questions need to be asked of Roar, be it the players or the coach himself.

Did they underestimate their opposition and overestimate their own on-pitch prowess? Had they begun to believe the 18-matches-undefeated hype? And what the hell was Hopkins thinking?!

While combinations must be tried and tested and a coach cannot rely solely on one player in one position for all eternity - defender Brooke Spence's freak ankle fracture last week alone proved that - switching out your starting eleven for an untried, untested, clearly-unused-to-playing-in-that-combination B-team was always going to be a recipe for disaster.

Sure, Roar Women have been unfairly burdened with the hopes and dreams of all Roar fans, with Roar men's woes well documented and not worth revisiting here, but if they ain't broke, don't fix them. Or try tinkering with them instead.

With the exception of perhaps Burgess, no Roar player had a good game. Passes were short or sloppy. Structure was lost. Shots were sprayed. And reserve goalkeeper Kate Stewart had an absolute shocker. Much to our disappointment, season one reserve goalkeeper and crowd favourite Lara Boon wasn't picked up for season two.

So it was with much interest that we watched Stewart in this, her first start between the posts while first-choice keeper Casey Dumont was rested. Maybe it was due to nerves or a disorganised back line, but Stewart let in two decent - but not outstanding - shots in 20 minutes. I'm not alone in wishing Roar would bring back Boonie. And their starting XI.

Clearly it's better that they had this gameus horribilus in round eight and not in the grand final. Clearly any complacency that may have crept in has been completely vanquished. And vanquished it will need to be, with the top four proving to be a tight affair and likely grand final opponent Central Coast's Michelle Heyman currently single-handedly leading the race for the golden boot with a whopping 10 goals in eight games to her name.

It's also worth reminding ourselves - as I had to myself be reminded - that Roar didn't actually lose but draw and their undefeated record remains intact. Admittedly they've slipped down to second spot on the ladder and may have relinquished their grip on the Premiership to Central Coast, but in truth no one remembers a Premiership when it isn't followed up with a Championship.

Here's hoping Roar will think twice before fixing what isn't broken, will bring back Boonie, and that we fans never, ever have to re-experience such a funereal atmosphere.