Roar one step closer to Premiers Plate

Mike Mulvey says the Roar are well-placed heading into the business end of the season, but refused to declare the race for the Premiers Plate over.

Mike Mulvey says the Roar are well-placed heading into the business end of the Hyundai A-League season, but refused to declare the race for the Premiers Plate over.

Brisbane opened up a 10-point gap at the top of the standings with the 2-1 win over Adelaide United at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, with just five regular season rounds remaining.

A pair of Besart Berisha goals did the job for the Roar, who almost kept a clean sheet but for a late Jeronimo Neumann screamer.

Berisha’s strikes came either side of a controversial moment at the end of the first half, when a long-range effort from Thomas Broich hit the crossbar and bounced over the line, but was not awarded as a goal by the officials.

Mulvey would not be drawn on the whether the premiership was sewn up for the Roar, joking that they were now confident of a top six finish, but he did point out that the team were travelling well with the finals looming.

‘It’s all hands on deck for every team,’ he said.

‘Yes, we’ve got a bit of a lead, we accept that situation gladly.

‘We’ve worked damned hard for it. We’ve really, since I think June the third, have rolled out sleeves up, come in and set this opportunity up for ourselves, and as I said to the lads today, there’s a door open now, are we going to step through it?

‘And I think we really stepped through it today.’

On the disappointment of Brisbane being denied a goal for Broich’s brilliant effort, Mulvey said it was time for the Football Federation Australia to consider using goal-line technology.

‘That technology exists and we should see if we could get it here,’ he said.

‘Maybe it’s a little bit pricey but things like that are things of beauty – a strike from 30m and it’s 2-0, it changes the game.

‘I can be quite calm about it because we’ve won the game but there’s going to be a time, an instance, where it will cost a coach a game or a place in the finals and its not right in today’s day and age.’