Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou has underlined his “performance over results” philosophy, labelling his side’s performance “unacceptable” despite grabbing a point in a 3-3 draw with Perth Glory in Perth.
Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou has underlined his “performance over results” philosophy, labelling his side-s performance “unacceptable” despite grabbing a point in a 3-3 draw with Perth Glory in Perth.
The away side looked like taking all three points until a late penalty awarded to, and scored by, Mile Sterjovski levelled the scores leaving the two sides to share the spoils.
Postecoglou said he expected more from his side, having worked hard as a group over the past 18 months to build a true club style and philosophy.
“I-m not interested in getting cheap points and cheap victories playing like that, that-s not what we-re about,” Postecoglou said.
“I-m sure we-re capable of losing a game of football, but we-ll lose it playing our way and on our terms.
“I don-t want to be disrespectful of Perth because it-s not right and if I just downgrade our performance it takes away from them.
“From our point of view we just didn-t stick to any of our principles or beliefs.”
Brisbane started the match slowly and paid the price on 17 minutes when Travis Dodd opened the scoring for the home team.
Billy Mehmet beat two Roar defenders on the edge of the box before cutting the ball back across the face for Dodd to collect, turn and shoot past Michael Theoklitos in the Brisbane goal.
Perth went further ahead on 24 minutes when Brisbane let Mile Sterjovski run 25m with the ball towards and then across the box before unleashing a curling shot into the top corner.
Mehmet should have extended the lead a matter of minutes later when he was put through by an inch-perfect Liam Miller pass, but one-on-one with Theoklitos couldn-t beat the Roar keeper.
Brisbane tried to respond immediately with Danny Vukovic making a strong save down low from an Erik Paartalu strike from outside the box and then Josh Mitchell getting in the road of a Rocky Visconte effort in a flurry inside the Perth box.
Todd Howarth blew a perfect opportunity to extend the lead even further with seven minutes left in the half when he found himself on the edge of the box from a flicked on header, but he deflected the ball just over the bar.
Totally against the run of play Brisbane hauled itself back into the contest on 41 minutes when Mitch Nichols launched an absolute thunderbolt into the top corner from outside of the box which left Vukovic rooted to his goal line.
In Brisbane-s best move of the first half Besart Berisha very nearly levelled the scores when he was on the end of an Ivan Franjic cutback, but his cheeky back heel went just the wrong side of the post.
Then on the stroke of half time Brisbane drew level when Paartalu found himself on the end of a Luke Brattan corner to bounce his header into the same corner Nichols had found just five minutes earlier.
Perth opened the second stanza strongly and nearly took the lead back when a deflected Sterjovski shot crashed into the post with Theoklitos stranded.
Theoklitos then denied Perth their third when he pulled off an unbelievable save from a Mehmet header from the edge of the six yard box.
On 69 minutes Brisbane took the lead for the first time when Paartalu played the perfect ball over the top of the Glory defence for Nichols- well-timed run the Qantas Socceroos midfielder beating an on-rushing Vukovic from the edge of the box.
Franjic then fouled Sterjovski in the box and the former Socceroo stepped up to the mark to slot home and level the scores.
Both teams pushed for a winner in the closing stages of the match, but neither side could find the killer touch to take all three points.
Perth Glory 3 (Dodd 17-, Sterjovski 24-, 79-)
Brisbane Roar 3 (Nichols 41, Paartalu 45-+1, Nichols 69-)
Venue: nib Stadium
Referee: Chris Beath
Crowd: 6912
Perth Glory squad: 1. Danny Vukovic (Gk), 2. Josh Mitchell, 4. Billy Mehmet (22.Adam Taggart 83-), 5. Steve Pantelidis, 7. Jacob Burns (C), 10. Liam Miller, 13. Travis Dodd, 14. Steven Mcgarry (87-), 17. Todd Howarth (16.Evan Berger 80-), 19. Josh Risdon, 21. Mile Sterjovski
Substitutes not used: 30. Lewis Italiano (GK)
Yellow cards: 2. Josh Mitchell (74-)
Red cards: Nil
Brisbane Roar Squad: 1. Michael Theoklitos (GK), 2. Matt Smith, 3. Shane Stefanutto (19. Jack Hingert 57-), 4. Matt Jurman , 5. Ivan Franjic, 6. Erik Paaratlu, 7. Besart Berisha, 14. Rocky Visconte (8. Massimo Murdocca 46-), 16. Mohamed Adnan, 17. Mitch Nichols, 18. Luke Brattan (11. Issey Nakajima-Farran 69-), 19. Jack Hingert, 20. Andrew Redmayne (GK)
Substitutes not used: 20. Andrew Redmayne (GK)
Yellow cards: 1. Michael Theoklitos (78-), 17. Mitch Nichols (90-+4)
Red cards: Nil
