Brisbane coach Frank Farina is not panicking about his team’s slow start to the season, but admits he was disappointed with his team’s 3-3 draw with Melbourne after the Roar had held a two-goal lead at half-time.
The Roar now have just one point from a possible six after the opening two games and have conceded six goals in 180 minutes of football. But having participated in two very memorable matches, Farina said that his team was in a similar position last season and he is not about to panic.
“I’m not overly concerned at the moment. If it was Round 20, I might be concerned. You’ve got to weigh everything up and look at all things that are happening at the time. I think we’re playing some good football and you’re all football experts. I couldn’t sit here and tell you that we were playing good football, even if we weren’t,” he said.
“I thought last week we played well, we lost 3-1. This week, that’s two points lost for us to a degree. But I think we’re playing some decent stuff. We just probably don’t have the depth in terms of everyone being fully fit at the moment.”
Brisbane lost Josh McLoughan to a groin strain in the warm-up, while Danny Tiatto, who scored a belter of a first goal, didn’t last the first half with continuing issues with his back and hamstring.
Goalkeeper Liam Reddy carried a quad strain through the match and didn’t take goal kicks, while Charlie Miller is battling for fitness as well. Farina said those injuries told late in the game, but was more focused on the bigger picture.
“I-d love to have six points in the bag at the moment, but we don’t,” Farina said. “We’ve got one point. But let’s not forget we’ve come to the champions and drawn 3-3. You score three goals away from home, you expect to win, but there’s 24 games to go. This is how we started last year as well but I thought we played pretty well last year during this period.”
There was a sense of relief for Melbourne manager Ernie Merrick, who escaped with his first point of the season courtesy of second-half goals from Danny Allsopp and Carlos Hernandez.
“We played good football throughout, some really slack marking that we paid the price for,” Merrick said. “But I praised the team at the end of it. I just thought to get a draw out of that and nearly get the win through Fabiano and Archie, I just thought that was a tremendous display of football.”
“It was vital (to get a point). For that amount of good play with nothing to show for it, it’s pretty tough to take,” he said. “So, I really felt as though it was a win for us.”
There were a wealth of positives to come out of the performance for Melbourne after another slow start saw it slip 2-0 down inside 24 minutes after some poor defending. Hernandez led the revival with a powerful strike in the 33rd minute and then the equaliser, a breath-taking free kick from the edge of the box.
Billy Celeski was another key in Melbourne’s comeback, coming on to anchor the midfield after the home side was cut up down the middle of the park in the first half.
Merrick said Celeski, who is nursing himself back from off-season hip surgery, was ready to play 90 minutes in next Saturday’s match against North Queensland.
“He has worked hard. We wanted him to come in at the right time,” Merrick said. “I think we chose the right time (top bring him back). I think he-ll be hard to move. He had a terrific game.”
