They are three very different young players with one common trait – they all know how to score goals.
Mitchell Hore, Nicholas D’Agostino and Abrahim Yango have been spearheading the Brisbane Roar Youth team’s surge up the PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues Queensland table.
In climbing to fourth position on the ladder, the Roar have scored 29 goals in nine matches. That’s just behind leaders Moreton Bay FC’s 34 goals in 10 games and Olympic FC’s 31 goals in 12 games.
In their current five-game undefeated run, the Young Roar have scored 13 goals and conceded six from three wins and two draws.
Hore, D’Agostino and Yango have accounted for 21 of their side’s goals so far this season.
Hore, 19, an elegant and versatile midfielder, has eight goals in nine games which includes a record six-goal haul in the Young’s Roar’s 12-0 win over Western Pride in March.
A measure of his perceived potential within the club was shown during the Roar’s 3-0 win over La Liga side Villarreal when Hore was a 79th minute substitute for the Roar’s renowned holding midfielder and playmaker Luke Brattan.
Hore is quick to put his six-goal star performance into the past and prefers to look ahead.
“I take every game as it is . . . and try and score every week. We’ve got a few games in hand and we have to keep trying to climb up the table,” he said.
Powerful central striker Nic D’Agostino has five goals in seven outings so far this season.
Seventeen-year-old D’Agostino made his senior team debut for the Roar when he played the final minutes of the Villarreal match after substituting Costa Rican international Jean Carlos Solorzano.
His strength is defying close marking by making extra space on the turn and getting his shot away as he showed in netting his team’s opener in the 4-1 win against Olympic FC last weekend.
“I’ve tried to step up my game this season and it is important for me to help the team by getting into as many goal-scoring positions as I can,” D’Agostino said.
“As the youngest member of the team it is a positive for me to be standing out and I can do that by keep getting as many goals as I can.”
Abrahim Yango, 18, a genuine speedster and clinical finisher, made two appearances off the bench in the final two rounds of last season’s Hyundai A-League and sat on the bench against Villarreal.
He has scored in the Roar’s last two matches despite taking a crushing hit to the ribs against Palm Beach SC a fortnight ago.
“It was a relief when I was cleared of any serious injury and then to score in two games running was pretty good,” Yango said.
“I’ve just got to keep working hard and keep showing what I bring to the team.”
The Roar host South West Queensland Thunder FC at Perry Park on Sunday (3.30pm kick off) with coach John Sime insisting his side must not lower its recent intensity against the cellar dwellers.
The Thunder has just one point from 10 games (a draw against the Roar) and have scored just eight times while conceding 44.
Sime said his team could easily have been beaten by the Thunder in their 2-2 draw in Toowoomba in March.
“This is a difficult game for us – just as challenging as Strikers or Redlands or anyone else. Table position has no bearing on this game,” Sime said.
“I’ve been happy with our performances of late and I think we can win this game but we have to look to our discipline and be patient. It won’t be easy by any means.”
