A clinical Brisbane Roar has comprehensively accounted for Melbourne Heart with a 5-1 win in Round 12 of the National Youth League at John Cain Memorial Park on Sunday.
In scorching conditions, Brisbane was assertive in their skill execution and they regularly found ways to capitalise on scoring opportunities.
The win means the fifth placed Brisbane move ahead of the fourth placed Melbourne on the ladder.
The Roar got off to a flying start when an opportunistic goal from Nicholas Fitzgerald opened the scoring in the seventh minute.
Fitzgerald received a short pass from a corner and cleverly detected the left sector of the goalmouth was unguarded, before pulling the trigger and giving his team the advantage.
Heart-s skill execution, on the other hand, was sub par and on a number of occasions they failed to find the open man streaming down the wing.
Despite the lack of fluency in their play, the home side were almost gifted an equaliser in the first half after a poor miscommunication error from the Brisbane defenders.
The loose ball landed at the feet of Maycon who had only the keeper to beat, only to see his shot deflected wide.
Maycon was clearly Melbourne-s most dangerous player (before being substituted in the second half), but the passage of play encapsulated Heart-s scoring woes.
After the break the Roar again grabbed the upper hand with a goal from Matthew Thurtell in the 49th minute.
A creative switch of the play from Brisbane caught the Heart off guard, as Kofi Danning battled hard for the ball in the corner.
Danning won possession and a well-placed ball found Thurtell who performed a nice twirl to find space, before finding the top corner of the net.
While the Roar continued to dominate proceedings, the Heart did find a goal in the 63rd minute to bring them back in to the contest.
A floated ball in front of Craig Goodwin allowed him to seize the moment and dart past an oncoming defender and finish neatly in front of goal.
But the Roar had too much firepower and a goal to George Lambadaridis in the 73rd minute, and then a second to Thurtell just moments later virtually closed proceedings.
A late goal in stoppage time from substitute Tomislav Cirjak, from outside the box, capped off a terrific team victory on the road for the Roar.
Melbourne Heart 1 (Goodwin 63-)
Brisbane Roar 5 (Fitzgerald 7-, Thurtell 49- 75-, Lambadaridis 73-, Cirjak 90-)
