Brisbane Roar’s rebirth continued with a 3-0 win over the Newcastle Jets that took the Michael Valkanis-coached side to fourth on the A-League Men’s (ALM) ladder.
In front of a healthy Sunshine Coast Stadium crowd, central defender Lucas Herrington headed home a cracker in the first half and skipper Jay O’Shea scored his 19th ALM penalty from 20 attempts in the second.
The result was sealed by a missile of a shot from Quinn MacNicol, which rebounded off the near post and onto the back of goalkeeper James Delianov, before deflecting in for an own goal in the 89th minute.
Brisbane, who finished 12th last season, dominated the Jets from start to finish and in the first period alone had nine shots on goal to the visitors’ one.
The Roar opened the scoring with one of their best set pieces of recent seasons.
Georgios Vrakas curled his corner towards the near post to perfection before Herrington deceived the Newcastle defenders with a perfectly-timed run from the far post to send the glancing header into the back of the net.
“I don’t score many goals but it was great to score in front of the fans on the Sunny Coast,” he told Paramount.
“Every week we practice those set pieces because we know how important they are to games.
“Last season a lot of (Roar) games were lost to set pieces so it is good to see them paying off this time.
“Throughout the pre-season a lot of people called us the angriest and the bullies of the league.
“It is good to see we can play football as well as fight.”
Herrington, just 19, has been a shining light for the Roar.
Such is his burgeoning reputation as an Australia youth international that the Academy product will join Major League Soccer (MLS) club Colorado Rapids in January until the end of 2029.
O’Shea and Valkanis have forged a great captain/coach partnership, with the pair’s will to win and steely mentality permeating through the player group.
Michael Ruhs started for the Roar up front for the first time this season after Chris Long was injured at training late in the week.
Brisbane had clearly done its homework on the usually expansive Jets attack and they stifled the visitors while retaining their shape.
“The result was disappointing… and the performance was not there either,” Newcastle coach Mark Milligan said post-match.
Jets forward Will Dobson was free on his own early in the second half but his lobbed attempt at goal was easily grabbed by Roar goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis.
Valkanis was not impressed by the refereeing at stages and his comments led to him receiving a yellow card in the second half.
Ruhs was clearly offside in a Brisbane attacking move that ended with Henry Hore putting the ball in the back of the net.
The match was put beyond doubt in the 79th minute.
Hore had come off the bench with energy and his neat footwork inside the box drew a foul from Aleksandar Susnjar.
O’Shea stepped up from the spot and slammed it home to send Roar fans into a frenzy.
MacNicol then sealed it with a shot that was too hot to handle.
The 10th placed Jets were leaky in defence and have now conceded 12 goals in four games.
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