Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou believes the his side’s 12th man – the club’s loyal supporters – can turn Skilled Park into a Suncorp Stadium-like fortress for this week’s must-win fixtures against Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Heart.
The recent devastating floods around Brisbane mean the Roar-s regular home ground Suncorp Stadium remains unavailable until further notice.
Brisbane have been forced to relocate their next two home games to the Robina stadium, but despite the move, hopes remain high of taking maximum points to maintain a strong grip on this year-s Premier-s Plate.
“Home is just as much about the people you are with as it is the location,” Postecoglou said.
“Our supporters will help us through this.
“They-re a big part of Suncorp and they-re a big part of our home performances because they really get behind the team.
“Late in games we-ve been attacking the end where the Den is and that support really helps our players.”
Brisbane Roar are yet to lose a home fixture in this Hyundai A-League campaign, a record stretching back to the final game at Suncorp Stadium last season against Sydney FC, and coach Postecoglou is confident his side can maintain their impressive record despite playing at Skilled Park to give them much-needed momentum heading into the finals series.
“Sitting here with four games to go – three at Suncorp and one in North Queensland and not having to travel interstate – it was a pretty good situation for us,” he said.
“That-s the one thing that has made it a bit of a challenge for us but there-s no point in worrying about it, it will all unfold as it does.
“From a football point of view, we can-t control those things so we-ve just got to accept it and move on.
“All we can control is what we do and from that point of view, things are tracking well.”
Wednesday-s match against Wellington Phoenix will mark two weeks since Brisbane-s last match and while Postecoglou has used the break to fine tune his squad ahead of their final games of the season, it has given other Hyundai A-League clubs a chance to reduce the gap at the top of the ladder.
The Roar-s closest rivals, Central Coast Mariners, now sit six points below them on the ladder having played the same amount of games, meaning the fate of year-s Hyundai A-League premiership rests in the hands of the Brisbane players.
With a fortnight of solid training under their belts, Postecoglou backed his troops to take the field ready to prove they are worthy of their table-topping position in the league.
“We haven-t picked up points because we haven-t played, we-re not that good yet – we have to at least play to pick up points!” the Brisbane boss joked.
“Central Coast are going well, Adelaide are going well, Gold Coast as well – it-s almost two competitions, we-ll be meeting teams we don-t recognise pretty soon because they-ve all changed a fair bit.
“That-s just another challenge for us which is good.
“In terms of pressure, everyone has been after us for 21 weeks so the boys are pretty comfortable with where we are at.”
