Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory both left Kayo Stadium frustrated after a physical 1-1 draw that does little to help the finals aspirations of either side.
Both goals came early in the match, Englishman Chris Long scored first for Brisbane before Perth grabbed the equaliser just minutes after through a Youstin Salas own goal.
Brisbane opened the scoring on 15 minutes with some set piece genius, Jay O’Shea rolling the ball on the angle to take the defensive wall out of the way for Long to slam home from range.
Perth equalised straight away when Salas failed to deal with Luca Tevere’s dipping cross from the right under pressure from Nicholas Pennington.
The Costa Rican defender poked his foot at the ball while strewn on the ground, but only succeeded in putting it into his own net.
There was a touching moment in the 38th minute when the stadium rose in applause to acknowledge the DT38 Foundation, the foundation established in memory of Dylan Tombides to raise awareness of testicular cancer.
The Roar lost both their starting strikers to injury in the first half; first goalscorer Long fell to the floor clutching his left ankle at the half hour mark, then Nick D’Agostino landed awkwardly on his knee in stoppage time.
The game became much more physical as both teams grew more desperate to gain the lead, though neither side could find a way to goal.
Brisbane had the better chances in the last 10 minutes of the match, but some key saves from Matt Sutton and a big block from Scott Wootton kept it at 1-1.
The draw doesn’t really do much for either side, leaving both sides outside the top six with a tough last month and a half of football to come.
Perth get the difficult task of travelling to Auckland next Sunday, while Brisbane get the week off before hosting Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday the 13th.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Brisbane Roar goal: Chris Long 16′
Perth Glory goal: Own Goal 19′
