Captain Matt Smith says further hard work and improved performances are the key messages to take from the club’s 2-1 win over Wellington Phoenix at Suncorp Stadium on New Year’s Day.
Captain Matt Smith says further hard work and improved performances are the key messages to take from the club’s 2-1 win over Wellington Phoenix at Suncorp Stadium on New Year-s Day.
The result has secured back-to-back wins for the club for the first time this season, easing the side into sixth place above the New Zealand side.
Despite this, Smith said his side had plenty improvement in them before they could consider themselves back to their best.
“I think we got three points, we needed to get the job done and we got the job done,” Smith said.
“At times it certainly wasn-t pretty, there were times where there were some good moments and some very good passages of play.
“We can certainly play better, but we did what we needed to do.
“We probably lacked a little bit of composure at the end of both halves and we let Wellington back into the game a little bit.
“I think we can take a lot of positives out of it, but there are a couple of negatives we can take out of it and will need to work on ahead of the Melbourne Heart game.”
Encouraging performances from the likes of Mitch Nichols, Thomas Broich and Ben Halloran were some of the positives to take from the win over Wellington.
Nichols and Broich showed some of the form which helped make Brisbane a difficult prospect for opposition teams over the past two seasons, while Halloran demonstrated he is starting to feel more comfortable in the Roar system.
Capping off the night was Besart Berisha-s first goal from open play since the middle of November, his sixth of the season so far.
The tight nature of the Hyundai A-League ladder means Brisbane have ascended from second bottom into a finals place in the space of two weeks.
However, Smith noted a fall could come just as quickly as a rise if the improved performances did not continue.
“I think if you look at the last couple of weeks, particularly in Adelaide, the effort that-s been put in is something we-ve probably missed over the course of the season,” he said.
“It is slowly getting back to where we need to be, but we-re still a long way off.
“In my opinion there-s still a lot of hard work to be implemented between now and the end of the season.
“It-s so important we go into every game 110%.
“It-s a league full of small margins and that-s been proven week in, week out.”
Next on the radar for Smith and his men is a return to AAMI Park to face Melbourne Heart on Sunday.
The two teams last met at the same venue in week six of the season and it was the home side who gave Brisbane a 4-1 touch-up .
Smith said he and his team mates would approach the upcoming fixture with a much greater intensity.
“Last time I think we gave them a lot more time on the ball than we had done previously,” Smith said.
“We let them come out very easy last time, which gave them some confidence.
“We-re looking to go there, press and really attack them.
“We-ve got a point to prove, we had probably our poorest performance of the season against Melbourne Heart down there and they certainly punished us.
“We-ll be looking to go there, try improve on last night-s performance, and get a win.”
