North Queensland Fury was forced to settle for a 1-1 draw with Brisbane Roar at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.
The homeside’s Robbie Fowler showed his class with a deft touch in the box before slotting the ball calmly past goalkeeper Liam Reddy in the seventh minute.
The visitor’s Matt Nichols dug his side out of a loss in the 82 minute after a shot deflected off him and into the top off the goal.
North Queensland deserved the points and had the ascendancy for majority of the night with and un-impressive Brisbane slow off the blocks.
They were rocked midway through the first half, however, when defender Paul Kohler was sent off after consecutive yellows cards for fouls on a galloping Sergio Van Dijk and Robbie Kruse on the wing.
It was one of many indiscretions in the encounter which was littered with 31 fouls.
North Queensland coach Ian Ferguson said his side was unlucky to remain winless in their maiden Hyundai A-League season.
“Again there were lots of positive from it but unfortunately you can’t do anything about the goal that was scored, it was a deflection, it could have gone anywhere … unfortunately for us it went into the net,” he said.
“It was a fantastic gutsy performance, we worked hard, we defended well, it was 10 men for about an hour.”
Brisbane coach Frank Farina admitted his side stole a point they didn’t deserve.
“We definitely stole a point, we can play better than that,” he said.
“Many teams have done it to us but we got but we got one that we most probably didn’t deserve.”
“It helps even up the ledger.”
“I think were flat we treating the ball like a hand grenade and we refused to keep a hold of it.”
North Queensland’s James Robinson pummelled the ball long to find Fowler who slotted the goal to put his side in front early with just seven minutes on the clock.
David Williams found space in the midfield and tried his luck with a rocket from 25 metres out but just scraped the cross bar.
The game took a turn when Kohler was marched off for a tackle on Kruse.
Brisbane then found momentum against a reduced opposition and enjoyed improved field position and possession.
David Dodd had a crack after sustained possession in the box but couldn’t get it past the legs of a stacked defensive line.
The Fury continued to dominate after the break but the Roar were looking more and more threatening.
Williams and McBreen were substituted for Chris Grossman and Dyron Daal to defend their precious lead.
Robinson fired a thunderbolt into defenders which rolled to Fowler at the far post but his best effort to snag a goal from close wasn’t good enough.
The Roar pushed their troops forward with players lining up on the goal line waiting to knock in a header but couldn’t capitalise.
A gasping Fowler was substituted in the 77th minute for Fred Angius to plug the defensive gaps.
The Roar sustained pressure and it paid off in the 82nd minute with a strike from Van Dijk deflecting off Nichols and into the top of the goal.
North Queensland Fury 1
(Fowler 7)
Brisbane Roar 1
(Nichols 82,)
Crowd 7,173 at Dairy Farmers Stadium
