A courageous head-first save from goalkeeper Trudy Burke almost inspired Canberra United to a tense win against Adelaide United on Saturday night.
But Canberra had to settle for a 2-2 draw to start a five-game road trip after squandering too many chances in front of goal at the Elite Systems Football Centre.
Burke stepped up when Canberra needed her most, putting her face on the line to stop a Sofia Huerta shot with just 13 minutes left in the game and her team trailing by a goal.
When Burke was cleared of concussion, Hayley Raso raced to the other end to finish a superb solo effort to level the scores.
But some controversial non-penalty calls in the dying stages ended Canberra's hopes of snatching victory.
"We created plenty of chances but we weren't able to convert," said Canberra coach Rae Dower.
"The disappointment out of that game is that the final passes just weren't there ... the football was actually quite good.
"Trudy saved a great one-on-one and when we got back to 2-2, we were marching on to get a winner but there were a couple of chances that didn't go our way."
Canberra hit the lead in the first half when Ellie Brush converted a penalty after striker Ashleigh Sykes was hacked down in the attacking box.
But their time in front was short-lived with Racheal Quigley hitting back six minutes later and then an own-goal after half-time gave the home side a surprise lead.
Canberra had done most of the attacking in the first half and had plenty of changes to find the back of the net, but Adelaide shot-stopper Eliza Campbell continually fended off shots.
When Burke went down it sparked Canberra back into action and they had the best chances to steal the game at the end.
However, they were denied what would have been a winning penalty when Ellie Brush was shouldered out of the way while waiting at the back post.
"Their goalkeeper played quite well and was probably the player of the game to be fair," Dower said.
"When you get one penalty in a game you rarely get two and we weren't good enough to put our chances away, it shouldn't have been left to come down to that.
"We needed to take the chances we had in the open play, but we get away with a draw and keep going through this road trip period."
Canberra will play the next four games on the road, playing in Melbourne twice, Gosford and Sydney before returning to the capital on January 7.
AT A GLANCE
W-League round five: CANBERRA UNITED 2 (Ellie Brush 26', Hayley Raso 82') drew with ADELAIDE UNITED 2 (Racheal Quigley 32', own goal 54') at Elite Systems Football Centre.
