Melbourne Heart goalkeeper Clint Bolton has lauded his team’s bravery in their stunning 2-1 upset of Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
Melbourne Heart goalkeeper Clint Bolton has lauded his team’s bravery in their stunning 2-1 upset of Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
The Heart were pumping for the entire first half, heaping pressure on Brisbane and taking their opportunities to build an unassailable lead.
Star-performer Bolton said the side had hoped to find the defending champions vulnerable after having their record 36-game undefeated streak ended by Sydney FC last weekend, and marvelled at his side’s courageous performance to capitalise and become the first away side to win at Suncorp Stadium since January 2010.
“We weren’t sure what to expect from them (as to) whether they’d be fired up or if Sydney had softened them up a bit and put a few question marks in their own mind for us to exploit,” said Bolton.
“The boys were brave. They were really brave out there. I can’t give credit enough to the 12 or 13 blokes in front of me.”
“We had a look at the weaknesses during the weak and there aren’t many, it’s as simple as that, but you have to find those couple of things that you can maybe use to your advantage and we did that perfectly in the first half.”
After being stranded on a lowly three points after five rounds, the Heart have now won four of their last five games to move into third place on the Hyundai A-League ladder.
Heart coach John van ‘t Schip admitted that Brisbane were still the competition’s gun side, but claimed that his men were on the crest of something special.
“Brisbane is the best team at the moment. That we won this evening doesn’t mean they’re not good anymore, they still remain the best team here in the A-League,” said van ‘t Schip
“But we are in a good moment. We had a game plan for the first half that worked out very well and then in the second half we went in with the lead knowing that there would be a lot of pressure, because Brisbane score a lot of goals at the end of their games.”
“It was a very good win. At the end we had a bit of luck and a goalkeeper doing his job, so overall we’re a happy team and a happy club at the moment.”
“We are on the beginning, I have a feeling, of something that could happen. We have to be sharp, we have to be humble, we have to work hard on the training pitch and keep on doing the things that we believe in and work on.”
“There’s no reason to start celebrating… we’ve seen how close all the teams are… we have to understand that it doesn’t come for nothing.”
Pre-game van ‘t Schip had talked up his side’s willingness to slug it out with Brisbane and after the result the Heart gaffer reiterated his belief that meeting fire with fire was the only chance.
“People were saying that Wellington had a great result (drawing 1-1 against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium in week six). They had a great result, but also, it could easily have been seven or eight to one,” he said.
“You need to play forward otherwise, one way or another, you’re going to cop goals. “
“So that’s what we did and it worked out. If we play them another 10 times they might win seven or eight, but it worked out well this evening and I have to give the boys a very big compliment.”
