Adelaide United have held on for a 0-0 draw against high-flying Sydney FC, becoming only the second side to shut the Sky Blues out this season.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic, however, with Marco Kurz’s young blood performing brilliantly to secure a point at Coopers Stadium.

Jordan Elsey was a star performer, as he has been for the last few weeks. Ersan Gulum went off injured early, and Elsey rose to the occasion.

“Definitely (feels like a win), we wanted to go in winning but to show what we had with the boys out there, we could have snatched it late,” he said.

“It was a bit quiet at half time, we told (the young guys) to go out and play like they would in the Youth League.

“A-League’s about momentum and we want to build on this and go on to next week. We work hard every day of the week, there’s no excuse.”

Jordy Buijis cut a far more forlorn figure, realising that Sydney let a key opportunity slip.

“We didn’t make chances,” he said. “We lost the ball too fast. We are disappointed today because we lost two points, it was not an easy game.

“We tried to pressure as high as possible, and we did that well. But sometimes you don’t have the luck to score goals, today was one of them and we keep moving on.”