Queensland Roar captain and marquee signing Craig Moore has had the unhappiest of A-League debuts, sent off in a 2-2 draw with Adelaide United.

The Socceroo veteran received two second-half yellow cards within five minutes to receive his marching orders, which he greeted with disgust, throwing his captain's armband to the ground as he walked from the Suncorp Stadium pitch.

Each card stemmed from clumsy challenges on Adelaide striker Nathan Burns, who opened the scoring for the match with a stunning strike in the eighth minute.

Moore stood over the stricken Burns after his 68th minute red card, apparently unhappy with the 19-year-old staying down after the tackle.

Moore's dismissal looked to be the end of the Roar's chances, down 2-1 at the time.

However defender Sasa Ognenovski brought the crowd of 16,828 to their feet with his 76th minute header into the Adelaide net, which came from a pin-point corner kick from Brisbane-raised Matt McKay.

Neither team had any clear goal scoring chances in the remaining quarter hour, with the early frenetic pace seemingly taking its toll on all players.

Moore's dismissal capped off a frustrating night for the locals, who dominated the first half but failed to capitalise on a myriad of solid chances.

Adelaide, conversely, took full advantage when opportunities arose, Burns' first half strike from outside the penalty box one of the visitors' few chances in the first half.

McKay levelled the scores on the stroke of halftime, with his shot in front of goal taking a kind deflection off Adelaide skipper Michael Valkanis and into the left corner of the net.

Adelaide pulled away again straight after the breakthrough, with Burns' Olyroos teammate Bruce Djite showing tremendous power to head in a pinpoint cross from Brazilian import Cassio.

The match looked all but over after Moore's dismissal, however the Roar, led impressively by veteran wing-back Danny Tiatto, managed to draw level and held on to salvage a point.

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