Rivals Adelaide Blue Eagles and Campbelltown City played out a goalless stalemate at Marden Sports Complex in Round 14 of the South Australia National Premier League.

Campbelltown’s second consecutive draw sees them fall into fifth place, while Blue Eagles remain in sixth position, one point behind the Red Devils.

In the opening minutes, Calvin Mbarga almost put Blue Eagles ahead against his former side after being slipped through on goal, but he sprayed his shot wide.

In the 40th minute, Marc Marino had a double chance for Campbelltown, but young keeper Michael Catford saved the first shot, before the winger fired the rebound wide.

Early in the second half, Tony Hatzis dinked in a cross from deep to Michael Matricciani, but the striker headed over the bar from close range.

Minutes later, Catford made a superb acrobatic save to keep the Blues in the game, using both his leg and arm to stop a powerful effort from Marino.

In the 60th minute, Mbarga created an opening by turning sharply in the box, but he fired his shot just wide of the post.

Marino then sprinted through on goal after cutting in from the right, but he was denied by Catford once again, as the teenage shot stopper was able to palm away the effort.

In the final 20 minutes, Mbarga had two opportunities to snatch a win for Blue Eagles, skewing the first shot wide of the mark, then blasting the second off-target after playing a one-two with Yvan Boyokino.

Campbelltown full back Jake Halliday received a straight red card in the 85th minute for a challenge on Adam Harris, but it was too late to impact the outcome of the game.

Adelaide Blue Eagles striker Kym Harris said the draw was a fair result.

“The draw was definitely the fair result, it was pretty even, there weren’t too many chances,” Harris said.

“We’ve improved compared to the last two weeks. The team has taken a few steps forward which is good, but we’ve got a couple of tough games coming up, so hopefully we can take a bit of momentum from the draw, but obviously we would’ve preferred the win.”

Harris spoke about what his side needs to do to end their three-game winless streak against league leaders West Adelaide in Round 15.

“I think we need to catch a break and keep working hard. We’ve obviously got the week off this week, so we’re going to have two weeks before our next game.

“We haven’t scored for a few weeks now, goals aren’t coming by too easily but hopefully we can start finding the net.

“It’s a massive game. We’ve got the Adelaide City game on the Monday night after aswell, so the two of those games are both very important.

“If we can get results from both of those games, we’ll set our season up very nicely, but on the other hand, two losses, we’d end up finding ourselves outside of the top six, so it’s crucial.”

Campbelltown City attacker Luigi Ditroia felt that his side could have snatched the win.

“I thought Blue Eagles started better in the first 10-15 minutes, but I thought we could have taken the win; we had a few more chances but we just couldn’t score,” Ditroia said.

“It was a bit scrappy and could have gone either way, so I guess the draw was fair.

“We’ve had a pretty tough run, but now we have a few more of the bottom teams, so it’s the time to start picking up some more points.

“We’re pretty happy with how we’ve been playing, but we’ve only picked up two points in the last fortnight, so the boys aren’t too happy about that but a point is better than nothing, so we’ll just continue and hopefully start picking up some more points.”

18-year-old Ditroia, who joined Campbelltown from Blue Eagles this season, said the Red Devils must get a win in their Round 15 clash against South Adelaide.

“It’s a must win really; if we get anything less than three points we’ll probably fall into sixth spot, if not out of the top six.

“If we get three points next weekend we’ll be back in the top three I think, so we can’t get anything less than three points.”