Fabian Barbiero ensured Adelaide got the 1-0 win with a header 15 minutes from time after United had safely withstood a barrage of attacks from Brisbane Roar, thanks to some more heroics from keeper Eugene Galekovic.

Afterwards Vidmar was delighted by the much-needed win on the road.

"I'm really rapt about that result," he said. "I thought the players were tremendous tonight.

"They really played with their heart on their sleeve, showed a lot of passion, a lot of commitment and showed there is still a hell of a lot of fight left in us.

"But it's just one step. We can't get too carried away, there is still a lot of work to be done, we really need to squeeze into that top six and we certainly feel that tonight and during the past week that we started to build a platform."

He added: "What we can't do now is get carried away with it and make sure that next week we keep driving our objectives and make sure we prepare very well for the next game (against Wellington)."