Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou’s heart won’t be getting any younger after his side conjured a dramatic injury-time victory in Perth on Sunday evening.
In an engrossing encounter, the match appeared headed for a draw after Reinaldo’s strike for Brisbane in the second minute was cancelled out by Perth defender Scott Neville’s powerful header less than four minutes later.
The Roar coach also saw a netted effort from Mitch Nichols in the 67th minute flagged offside before a powerful Nichols drive was acrobatically palmed to safety by Glory stopper Tando Velaphi with 10 minutes remaining.
But in the fifth minute of added time, his side found a way to earn maximum points as the impressive Nichols cut out a late Glory attack, sending the ball in for Roar youngster Rocky Visconte in the area.
As Velaphi and Glory midfielder Todd Howarth flew in to dispossess him, Visconte leapt into the air to avoid the challenges. But as luck would have it, Howarth’s outstretched leg collected the ball and it deflected into goal off the base of Visconte’s boot.
“The boys left it late, they’re killing me,” joked Postecoglou, who’s sure to have earned a few more gray hairs from his side’s great escape.
“But, yeah I thought we deserved it,” he added.
“I thought we had enough opportunities to kill the game off earlier, particularly in the second half, and you know I don’t know how many shots we had on goal but certainly I think we dominated.”
“They had a patch in the first half. We started well, obviously got the goal and yeah, we let a soft goal in from the set piece and they started looking a little bit dangerous and we kind of gave them a couple of opportunities.”
“But even during that period we were creating ourselves.”
“From our point of view it was just a matter of getting that second goal. We left it late but I’d say on the balance of the game, we definitely deserved the three points.”
Postecoglou reserved special praise for Nichols, who is developing a reputation as something of a super sub after impressive performances coming on in the second half in the last two games.
Like many players at the Roar during a tumultuous 2009-10 campaign, the 21-year-old endured a tough season, starting in just nine of 27 games played.
But having survived Postecoglou’s end-of-season cull, one that saw high profile players like Sergio van Dijk and Tommy Oar leave the club, Nichols appears to be justifying the faith shown in him by the coach.
“He (Nichols) made a massive impact,” Postecoglou said.
“Last week he did the same thing and Mitch is going really well.”
“We’re doing pretty well in the last 20 minutes of most games, so having him come on, and he makes some good decisions, I think it’s helped us for sure.”
