Emily Condon's 91st-minute strike, set up by a scoop-pass, broke Canberra's hearts in a 2-1 defeat to Adelaide United at Marden Sports Complex.

Chelsee Washington set up an early Canberra lead, slotting the ball in behind the defence for veteran striker Michelle Heyman to slot in the opener on 15 minutes.

Adelaide coach Adrian Stenta was not happy with the decision, believing Heyman was offside.

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United head coach Vicki Linton celebrated the goal and said from her angle it was hard to tell if it was offside.

One big factor that hit the visitors in green was the heat, having come from training in 14 degrees in Canberra on Friday to a 34 degree game on Sunday, the response from her players was something Linton commended.

"We didn't have one player cramp. So look it was really really hot, it genuinely was hot," she said.

"On Friday, when we trained, it was 14 but it felt like 10 and then we've come over here and it's 34 - that's a significant difference.

"We were lucky there was a little bit of cloud cover, etc. and drink breaks when needed, but that was one of the things I'm really proud of the effort and how they dealt with that and I think that was excellent."

Margot Robinne almost doubled the visitors' lead minutes later after she pinched the ball from the home side's defence, driving it to the baseline and crossing it to try and find the feet of Laura Hughes.

Reds goalkeeper Annalee Grove, however, got a vital touch to Robinne's cross to push it behind Hughes' unmarked run.

The flow of United's game was soon interrupted after Grace Maher gave the ball away in the final third and Adelaide pounced. It allowed Fiona Worts to find herself one-on-one with Keeley Richards. Richards saved the effort, pushing it out beyond the 18-yard box, before Nanako Sasaki hit a first-time long-range effort to level the score at 1-1.

Chances became less clean-cut in the second half for both sides, despite Ash Sykes coming into the front three for Canberra. Sykes played 84 minutes in round one and Linton said she was only given 45 minutes in Adelaide due to illness during the week.

Stenta said he was very happy with his side's resilient response, following their 5-1 loss last week.

"It probably still wasn't a complete performance but I'm just really pleased the girls found a way to win, especially bouncing back from what was a really tough result the week before," he said.

"I thought it was a really resilient performance, and hopefully it should hold us in good stead moving forward.

"There's no easy games in this league, as I always say, but I'm just really pleased that we found a way to get it done."

Sasaki added an assist to her name to set up Adelaide's second, and the matchwinner, in injury time. Her scoop on the box floated over the heads of Canberra's defence, catching Hughes on the wrong side of Condon, who hammered it home to take all three points.

The visitors were given a chance to respond on the edge of the box with a free kick a minute later - in addition to two late corners - but Canberra was unable to get on the end of Maher's kicks.

Loan player Karly Roestbakken again extended her playing time in Canberra's defence, increasing her game time to 90 minutes in Adelaide after a 30-minute cameo in the side's round one loss against Melbourne City. Roestbakken was back to her overlapping ways in the first half before the Reds kept her quieter in the second.

ACT NPL player Emma Stanbury earned her first start for Adelaide in the round two match, proving a workhorse in the midfield for her side.

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