Brisbane Roar’s depth was on display at Spencer Park last night with a largely unfamiliar line-up securing a 4-2 victory over VETO Premier League club Brisbane City.
Head Coach Ange Postecoglou opted to rest the majority of his regular line-up against seventh-placed City, granting the younger squad members an opportunity to impress with just two months until the next Hyundai A-League season commences.
National Youth League players James Donachie, Chris Bush, Jason Geria and Alistair Quinn all appeared on the team sheet-s starting eleven with ‘keeper Andrew Redmayne taking up the position between the posts.
The Roar started brightly and Brisbane City were quick to stifle the attacking prowess from the Hyundai A-League side but on occasion, failed to keep up with their pacey opponents.
In the 8th minute, a hasty tackle resulted in a free-kick for Brisbane on the edge of the penalty area and while defender Mohammed Adnan did his best to curl the ball into the back of the net, the shot was easily saved by City ‘keeper Aurelien Berson.
Massimo Murdocca gave the Brisbane Roar supporters voice after 11 minutes, netting arguably the goal of the pre-season after he was teed up perfectly off a Luke Brattan corner.
Brattan-s pass found Murdocca unmarked just outside the box and the Roar foundation player unleashed a screamer into the top left corner of the goal to hand his side the early advantage.
Murdocca has only ever scored twice in the Hyundai A-League but has already reached that tally in this pre-season campaign and Brisbane Roar fans will be hoping the midfield workhorse continues his run of form as the competitive season approaches.
While the Roar looked lively in the final third, Andrew Shepherd was equally as energetic up front for Brisbane City.
Just moments after failing to make the most out of a one-on-one with Redmayne, Shepherd found the equaliser for his side in the 20th minute and after capitalising on indecision amongst the Brisbane defence, the striker grabbed a double just before the break.
Having gone into halftime on top of their Hyundai A-League opponents, City were keen to hold onto their one-goal lead and came out firing in the second stanza.
Jared Austin was unlucky not to score the home side-s third of the night five minutes after the restart when his thunderous shot bounced off the inside of the post and it proved costly, with the Roar levelling the scores three minutes later through a well-taken free kick by Luke Brattan.
The confidence continued to build amongst the young Roar players and soon Tommy Cirjak found himself amongst the goal scorers before substitutes Corey Brown and Ken Dougall combined for Brisbane-s fourth.
Another positive on the night was the 15 minute cameo of right-back Ivan Franjic in his first appearance for the club since injuring his hamstring against Sunshine Coast Fire back in June.
Brisbane City 2 (Andrew SHEPHERD 20-, 38-)
Brisbane Roar 4 (Massimo MURDOCCA 11-, Luke BRATTAN 53-, Tommy CIRJAK 70-, Kenneth DOUGALL 83-)
