The Reds have been beaten just once at home all season, while Glory have picked up only four points on their travels, and Ferguson is expecting a tough test in the South Australian capital.

"Adelaide are consistent and that's been the key to their season," Ferguson said. "They've got good players and they know their jobs. They're not sitting in second place because it's a fluke.

"They are sitting in second because they are one of the most consistent sides in the league along with the Mariners. Kossy's prerogative is to make changes every week and it's working.

"He wants everyone getting game time and there's nothing wrong with that. He's the coach, so he takes the plaudits when things are going well and he's the one who'll be getting kicked in the backside when they aren't.

"But I think he's doing a fantastic job."

Glory will launch their cross-border raid off the back of a 2-2 home draw with Sydney FC, a game which Ferguson felt should have yielded three points for his side.

"We should have put the game out of sight in the first 45 minutes," he said. "I thought the tempo and the ball speed was good and we created decent chances.

"Their 'keeper made some great saves and the (Travis) Dodd goal should never have been ruled out for offside. That early goal would have given us a cushion, but these things happen.

"In the second-half, I felt as though we were pushing forward too much and leaving ourselves wide open. We've got to be a little bit smarter in the way we do things.

"When we're 1-0 up, we need to keep it tight and hold teams up and that gives the other players time to get back in, regroup and get the shape back."

Despite the disappointment of failing to see off the struggling Sky Blues, however, the Glory coach is confident his charges have what it takes to down Adelaide, with whom they fought out a 1-1 draw back in week 6.

"I thought the draw was a fair result the last time we went there," he said. "I felt we were the better side in the first-half and they were probably better in the second and both sides had great opportunities to kill each other off.

"It was quite an open, end-to-end game that could have gone either way. We always have those kind of games against Adelaide and hopefully this one will be no different and we can get the three points."

And while Glory haven't yet joined in with the current A-League recruitment rush, Ferguson is optimistic the club are close to filling the vacancy created by Billy Mehmet's surprise departure last week.

"We are always looking and we've got irons in the fire," he said. "We've got a budget for this player that we're trying to get and we need to work within that budget.

"We need to make sure we get the right player in and we're just waiting on responses from the players we've contacted, but that gives us time to do our homework on them as well."

Since losing interest in former England star Michael Owen, Glory have been linked with several other UK-based players as well as ex-Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen who is currently plying his trade in Belgium with Cercle Brugge.