Being branded with the wooden spoon would have been a major embarrassment for a club that won the Asian Champions League six months earlier and could have an impact beyond sentiment.

So desperate are the Wanderers to avoid the image attached with being the bottom-placed club in the competition that chief executive John Tsatsimas went public before the match venting frustration that Perth Glory weren't docked all competition points for breaching the salary cap and consigned to last place. "If you finish last, it can affect your sponsorship and membership. If the allegations against Perth have been proved, it should be in last place," Tsatsimas told SBS.

For the players, however, ensuring their disappointing season wouldn't be remembered as anything worse than just that was the focus of their talks before and mid-game, according to striker Tomi Juric. Having conceded on the stroke of half-time, he revealed their spirited comeback was inspired by their desire to not finish 10th.

"It was just mentioned due to the fact that we're a club that loves winning games. We were built on that, we were a team that internally expects to win every game. Unfortunately it hasn't been that way this season but we've set ourselves a goal not to finish last. We're pushing through that and I thought we did fantastic tonight to come from a goal down to keep that promise to ourselves not to come last," Juric said. "Going from such a high like winning the Champions League to being last on the table, that's not what we want."

Having only won three previous games, the Wanderers' character was put to a significant test when Adelaide's Sergio Cirio landed the first goal on the stroke of half-time,  reminding players again of what was at stake. It was a continuation of the discussion among the playing group before the game. The Wanderers play Perth Glory next week and can now avoid the wooden spoon if they equal the result of Newcastle Jets, who play finals-bound Brisbane Roar.

"Obviously we don't want to finish the season in last place and we've been talking about that for a while now," Juric said. "We spoke before the game if we went down it would be a test of character for us. That was the only question mark we had next to our names - are we mentally prepared to push through that barrier. We showed that tonight to ourselves," Juric said.

The 23-year-old striker appears certain to play his final A-League game for the club next week against Perth Glory as he is off contract and has already begun attracting interest from overseas clubs. Juric scored from the spot to spark the comeback against Adelaide before setting up for Mark Bridge  to score the winner in his 200th game.

"I'm always happy to grab a goal and anyway I can help the team to score goals whether that's an assist as it was tonight, I'm more than happy with that," Juric said. "I was extremely happy for Bridgy to get one tonight and I'm glad and happy that I could be the one to set that up. Credit to him, 200 games, it's a big milestone in the A-League for anyone. He did a fantastic job tonight and the boys did well to get him that three points and get him that goal."

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