Adelaide United winger Ben Halloran is urging his A-League Men’s teammates to ignore Brisbane Roar’s winless start to the season.
The Reds, with two draws from their opening two fixtures, travel to meet the Roar on Saturday.
Brisbane were trounced 3-0 by Melbourne Victory last Sunday after losing 2-1 to Melbourne City in their campaign opener.
But Halloran says it’s too early in the season for any meaningful form lines to be emerge.
“We have only played a couple of games and they have both been away games for them,” Halloran said on Tuesday.
“We know that they’re quite strong at home.
“And we played them in the pre-season and they beat us 2-0 and we didn’t play very well. That’s an added incentive for us going there, we know what we’re up against.
“But I don’t think we can underestimate them.
“It’s too early in the season to tell who is going to be there at the end of the season.”
Halloran said Adelaide wouldn’t overly focus on the Roar, instead seek improvement from within a Reds side which drew 2-2 with reigning champions Melbourne City last Saturday night.
“It’s obviously a bonus that we did play them (Brisbane) in the pre-season but they have played the same way for the last few years so we know what to expect,” he said.
“But to be honest if we play our own game, we’re good enough to beat any team in the comp.
“Defensively we need to tighten up a little bit.
“And also in the final third, we’re creating a lot of chances but we just need to be a bit more clinical.”
Halloran scored the equaliser against City in the 90th minute – the second of Adelaide’s goals in last quarter-hour which secured a point.
“Given that we did concede two goals, we showed tremendous spirit to fight back,” he said.
“It’s always unfortunate to go a couple of goals behind but Melbourne City are a good side.
“We played some good football in patches and we didn’t allow them to play their type of football that they like to play.
“Coming back from 2-0 to get a point in the end was probably a fair result.”
