A Reinaldo double and strikes from Sergio Van Dijk and David Dodd has seen Brisbane Roar register a convincing 4-1 win over the Wellington Phoenix at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.
Looking for its first home win since beating Sydney Round 8, Brisbane opened up the scoring through Reinaldo in the 17th minute after Van Dijks back-post header was parried by Phoenix keeper Reece Crowther directly into his path.
Not to be outdone Wellington equalised 10 minutes later through Chris Greenacre, the Englishman rising unmarked from a corner to fire home, beating the Roar defenders who were guilty of napping after Daniel and Leo Bertos conjured a quick set piece from the flag.
The Phoenix should have grabbed a second a short time later, Roar keeper Griffin McMaster producing a great one-on-one save to deny goal scorer Greenacrce who was played neatly into space by Brazilian winger Daniel.
With sides creating chances at both ends, it was Brisbane which could have gone into the half-time break with the lead, midfielder Andrew Packer nearly scrambling his diving header home after a deep Tommy Oar cross was misjudged by Phoenix stopper Crowther.
Emerging from the break it was Ange Postecoglou’s men who took the lead ten minutes in, Reinaldo registering his second of the night when he was played in behind a stretched Wellington defence by Charlie Miller to slot home low past the advancing Crowther.
A minute later and still on the back foot, Wellington were reduced to ten men after Maltese international Manny Muscat elbowed Oar in an off-the-ball incident.
With Brisbane looking increasingly dangerous, Van Dijk then stretched the score line further, slamming home a curling left-foot drive after the Roar were granted a free kick right on the edge of the area in the 76th minute, the goal Van Dijk’s 20th in 39 matches.
David Dodd capped off a well-earned win for the Roar in the 90th minute, when he was played into the area by Mitch Nichols, the substitute holding his composure to place his shot through the legs of Crowther.
Looking at the possibility of ending Round 16 last on the table, Sunday night’s win moves Brisbane up to seventh on the table taking them to within a point of Wellington, which sits on 20 points and three shy of next opponent Perth in fifth on 22.
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou was pleased with his side’s effort against the Phoenix but conceded the team needed to produce more back-to-back wins in order to break into the top six.
“I thought we were good value and we started really well, we looked threatening right from the start which is what we wanted to do,” Postecoglou said.
“In the second half we pretty much dominated and we could have had a couple more quite easily, it was a good night and it was a fantastic effort by the players,”
“We changed the system today, we looked at the team and tried do something a bit different, and from a system point of view it worked well”
“It got our dangerous players into good areas, Tommy (Oar) was good and Charlie (Miller) got a lot more of the ball and our front men got involved.” Postecoglou said.
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert was left lamenting his sides loss and although visibly upset with the Manny Muscat’s dismissal, refused to comment directly on the incident.
“We were well in the game, we created a lot of opportunities and we started well … in the second half we got behind the eight-ball with the sending off but you have to cop that and deal with that”
“I have quite a strong opinion of that (the sending off) but I guess we-ll chat on that through the right areas,” Herbert said.
Brisbane Roar 4 (Reinaldo 17, 55, van Dijk 79, Dodd 90)
Wellington Phoenix 1 (Greenacre 27)
