Melbourne City almost fluffed it, but managed to hand a resurgent Brisbane Roar outfit their first loss in eight games with a 3-2 win at AAMI stadium on Sunday.
City early on looked as if they could win the game five or six nil, yet Brisbane defied the odds to even it up at 2-2 but could not find an equaliser despite a gritty second half.
Connor Metcalfe opened the scoring, pulling something out of nothing by smoking a goal past Jamie Young from a position where a cross was more appropriate.
Minutes later, Scott Jamieson was on the end of a Taylor-made ball into the box but opted to square it.
Luckily for him, and for City, the ball had a mind of its own, taking a deflection off a Roar defender, another off the post and then a final one off Brisbane’s Kai Trewin for an own goal.
City were on offensively without much luck, but went to sleep in defence as Brisbane scored with their first decent attack of the match.
Joseph Campness held off Nuno Reis to get the shot off, a low runner at the bottom right corner, well enough placed to take a piece of the post and sneak past Tom Glover.
City dominated again, but Brisbane withheld and fought back.
It was the 38th minute, and certainly one of the stranger goals you will see. There was no clear flyer from either team on the Brisbane corner but despite it, Macaulay Gillesphey had the ball fall on his head and got the perfect piece of it to send it past Glover.
The Roar had evened up the contest, yet had been obliterated in general play for the other 43 minutes of the half.
The tone of the second half quickly followed the first, as Maclaren wasted yet another shot on goal, pushing the ball wide from just metres out.
City soon responded, with Scott Galloway taking on half a dozen bodies, weaving his way through to find himself closer than most expected he would get. His first shot was blocked, which made the left foot volley he was about to hit all the more sweet to make it 3-2 for City.
The Roar could not find a way to penetrate the stronghold that was City’s defence for the final 20 minutes, and the final whistle capped a good battle of football.
Melbourne City: 3 (Metcalfe 14′, Trewin 17′, Galloway 73′)
Brisbane Roar: 2 (Champness 28′, Gillesphey 38′)
AAMI stadium
Referee: Shaun Evans
Assistant referees: Wilson Brown & Daniel Ilievski
Fourth official: Jack Morgan
Melbourne City: Thomas GLOVER (gk), Scott GALLOWAY, Scott JAMEISON (c), Nuno PEREIRA REIS, Aiden O’NEIL, Jamie MACLAREN, Craig NOONE, Connor METCALFE, Adrian LUNA (Florin BERENGUER-BOHRER 71′), Curtis GOOD, Marco TILIO (Andrew NABBOUT 46′)
Unused subs: Daniel GEORGIEVSKI, Rostyn GRIFFTHS, Stefan COLAKOVSKI, Benjamin GARRUCIO, Matthew SUTTON
Brisbane Roar: Jamie YOUNG (gk), Scott NEVILLE, Corey BROWN, Macaulay GILLESPHEY, Masato KUDO (Dylan WENZEL HALLS 61′), Riku DANZAKI ( Alexander PARSONS 71′), Joseph CHAMPNESS (Golgol MEBRAHTU 61′), Jesse DALEY, Joshua BRINDELL-SOUTH (Patrick FLOTTMAN 87′), James O’SHEA (c), Kai TREWIN
Unused subs: Macklin FREKE (gk), Rahmat AKBARI, Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS
Feature image credit: Melbourne City
