Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou believes referee Ben Williams “didn’t have a great day” during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Williams’ contentious decision to award a penalty against Brisbane captain Matthew Smith for bringing Reds striker Sergio van Dijk down in the box, drew Postecoglou’s ire as the goal in the 78th minute enabled United to level the scores and escape with a draw, after Issey Nakajima-Farran’s goal had busted the deadlock.
It appeared though that Smith stumbled into van Dijk as a result of being clipped around the ankles by Adelaide’s Bruce Djite in the wet, slippery conditions.
Adding to Postecoglou’s frustration, Williams had earlier decided against awarding a penalty when Roar left winger Rocky Visconte appeared to be tripped in the box by Zenon Caravella in the first half.
“I thought that one (Visconte) was a penalty and the second one wasn’t,” Postecoglou said. “But what do you do?”
“Ben Williams didn’t have a great day. But we all have bad days … you just get on with it.”
“It didn’t help us achieve the result we wanted, but at the end of the day it didn’t affect our football and that’s the most important thing.”
Smith, who gave away the penalty, initially thought he’d slipped until he was later told about the contact from Djite.
“In the first instance I thought I slipped,” Smith said.
“When I slipped I fell to ground and he bundled over the top of me. But afterwards a few of the staff and boys have said I was tripped.”
“But sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. Unfortunately today we didn’t get it – that’s football.”
The Roar did have one go their way though when Besart Berisha’s raised hands came perilously close to brushing the ball after the Albanian striker inexplicably impersonated a volleyball spike in an attempt to repel an Adelaide attack.
“It didn’t hit his hand,” Postecoglou said. “I’m not really sure what he was trying to do … not a great idea.”
Despite the controversies and the fact Brisbane went away with just one point, Postecoglou was thrilled with the way his charges played.
The drawn result was the same as Wednesday’s stalemate against Perth Glory – in which Postecoglou branded his players as “cowardly” – but the former South Melbourne NSL championship skipper’s post-game assessment on Saturday was completely different.
“I thought we played well, the whole 90 minutes,” Postecoglou said. “I thought we totally controlled the game.”
“That’s the way I assess it – the way we played, away from home. We had the ball most of the time, the opposition didn’t have too many opportunities and we created quite a few ourselves.”
“We dominated possession and played football mainly in their half.”
“The result sometimes goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t.”
“At the end of the day I was pleased with the performance, but disappointed the players didn’t get the reward for their efforts.”
