Absorb pressure, take chances, and spoil the party.
Not only is this the guide to the perfect away win but how Brisbane Roar notched up its first victory of the new year.
The Victory – and its crowd – came to play in the first half but an uncompetitive pre-season caught up with the four-time champions and allowed the Roar to storm home with two second half goals.
After Callum McManaman’s 25th minute screamer cancelled out Scott McDonald’s 17th minute goal, the Victory went into the break with momentum on its side but ultimately failed to carry this into the second half.
Alternatively, after failing to score last week Brisbane’s execution was on point and made a rusty Victory outfit pay for sloppy mistakes.
‘’If you look at the game as a whole, we probably didn’t play the way we wanted to in the first half,’’ Brisbane head coach Warren Moon said.
‘’But at half-time we addressed and changed a few things and performed how we hoped we would going into the game. I was really pleased and I thought we deserved it.
‘’If our performance is there then we’re happy because we know we’re going to create chances and last week our performance was good without any reward. Tonight, in the second half, our performance was good and we were able to take our chances.’’
Dylan Wenzel-Halls was one of those players who, in contrast to last week, was rewarded for his persistence up front.
The 23-year-old missed a chance to double the lead moments after Macaulay Gillesphey goal – akin to last week’s crucial miss in the loss to City – but redeemed himself when he bamboozled the Victory defence and sealed the win for the Roar.
‘’You won’t come across a hungrier player than Dylan,’’ Moon said.
‘’He’s got the want and the will to work hard and the only thing missing from his game is goals and it’s not for a lack of trying he’s been working hard and doing his bit for the team for little reward.’’
A quirk in the fixture sees the two sides meet again at Dolphin Stadium, giving the Victory a chance to rectify its second half slump.
‘’I didn’t see it coming at half-time,’’ Victory boss Grant Brebner said.
‘’Second half we didn’t really perform around the pitch…there is an element of match fitness to that. We hadn’t played a game in three weeks before tonight.
‘’We saw glimpses of what we can do tonight and in the Champions League. Putting it together for 90 minutes is going to be a challenge and the only way to do this is with games.’’
While both sides should be fairly familiar with each other’s set up next Sunday, the Victory could be without winger Marco Rojas.
The Kiwi international indicated that he had an issue with his hamstring in the 20th minute but opted to remain on the field but was eventually forced off midway through the second half.
‘’Marco has a slight hamstring…he indicated he was okay in the first half but he didn’t see any problem with it or else he would have come off straight away. It was only later in the match when he felt he couldn’t continue so we took him off,’’ Victory head coach Grant Brebner said.
