Macarthur FC coach Ante Milicic believes his side showed they have the squad depth required to be an A-League threat following his side’s 2-0 win over Brisbane Roar on Tuesday night.
Milicic wielded seven changes from the club’s 2-2 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday for the competition new boys’ first interstate trip to face a Roar side who had won four matches in a row prior to kickoff in Redcliffe.
It meant the Bulls fielded some youthful faces against the in-form Queenslanders, with Lachlan Rose, Moudi Najjar, Antonis Martis and Denis Genreau tallying just 23 A-League starts between them.
“You need a big squad to be competitive in this league and I think the boys that came in did an excellent job,” Milicic told FOX Sports.
“They stepped up and I’m pleased for them.”
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Milicic added: “We knew that they [Roar] were very strong particularly at home and they start games very strong.
“We looked at the players we had, the ones that came in were excellent.”
Macarthur had to dig in defensively against Brisbane at times and found attacking opportunities hard to come by until Genreau volleyed Jake Hollman’s cross in for the opener on 76 minutes.
Experienced striker Matt Derbyshire added the second on the final minute of normal time by measuring a wonderful lob over the stranded Jamie Young to seal Macarthur’s first win outside of New South Wales.
“There’s times in a game you have to to dig in and hang on and I think we were good for the win tonight,” said captain Mark Milligan.
“I think a lot of the damage was done early in the game and a lot of the young boys who came in today were fantastic.
“They didn’t really put a foot wrong.”