Red-hot Roar pick off Heart

A match featuring the bright orange of Brisbane, a skin-searing afternoon, Andrew Redmayne and the flame-headed Corey Brown, few were left questioning the tastiest flavour of the day.

For once, it wasn’t Samboy’s Atomic Tomato chips.

Brisbane were hot from the opening whistle and won an early penalty through Sam Mitchinson’s sloppy challenge on Ivan Franjic, which Besart Berisha converted commandingly.

Former Roar man Redmayne kept his side in the contest through the middle parts of the first half, not least with one stretching save to deny Thomas Broich.
The German decided his former shaggy-haired teammate wouldn’t have a say the next time around, unleashing a 25-yard howitzer into the far corner to see Brisbane 2-0 up on the half hour.

Broich was angling for the Die Mannschaft callup that eluded him in his Bundesliga, the A-League of Europe, days, with his first half form, orchestrating Roar’s dominance.

Heart were a rabble, seemingly set out with a ‘no midfield’ structure, yet Brisbane, despite their enthralling panache, remained reasonably sympathetic to their finals-rivals plight, with Mitch Nichols passing up the simplest of chances for a match-sealing third.

Heart’s mounting counter-attacking opportunities after the break were almost made irrelevant when Stef Nijland curled a sweet effort off the inside of the post and out.

The red and white of Melbourne made more ground on Brisbane in the second term, coming within inches of a goal in stoppage time, but the home side’s orange shined brightest over their opponents, who are now out of the finals race.

BRISBANE: Theo, Hingert, Donachie, Stefanutto, Brown, Brattan, Lustica, Franjic, Broich, Nichols, Berisha.
Subs: Acton, Nijland, Henrique, Halloran.

MELBOURNE HEART: Redmayne,Walker, Coyne, Vrankovic, Mitchinson, Meeuwis, Thompson, Garcia, Mebrahtu, Tadic, Williams.
Subs: Bolton, Hoffman, Macallister, Babalj.

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