A fancied Adelaide United exposed attacking weaknesses in the Parramatta Power line-up with a gritty 2-1 National Soccer League win at Parramatta Stadium.

Adelaide hit Parramatta twice within the space of eight minutes through goals by Ross Aloisi in the 10th and Carl Veart eight minutes later and then withstood a non-stop second half attack.

Time and again Parramatta got into scoring position but either found and Adelaide body in the way or placed their attempts wide.

The win moved Adelaide into the top six and stamped them as a title chance on current form.

"We're pretty close to the position we wanted at the start of the season and there was a lot of mental toughness out there tonight," Adelaide coach John Kosmina said.

"We were a bit shaky at times especially in the last five minutes of the first half but we practiced this week on closing Parramatta down."

Adelaide shocked Parramatta with their bustling tactics and aggression.

The pressure forced Parramatta into a series of errors with Matt Thompson robbed of the ball which went to unmarked Aloisi who had plenty of time to open the score.

It was the first goal this season for Aloisi who has been playing in Italy for some years and only joined Adelaide this season.

One minute later the score should have been level when new Parramatta signing Sasha Petrovski tried to walk the ball into the Adelaide goal only to be blocked by keeper David Scarsella.

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